


Alternate Realities Vol 8 - George - REFORMATTED

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [4]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 23:02:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 70
Words: 68,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>George Millican loved his mint condition sports car. But when life threw him and his wife several curve balls things had to change. They would continue to change for years to come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A massive thanks to Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent for their adaptation of Äkta människor (Real Humans) "HUMANS". S2 starts filming in two days!! YIPPEE!
> 
> Some of this work calls on dialogue from the series to help anchor it. Lots of headcanon, favorite films, music, elements from the other Humans works of mine. This story brings together a number of ideas that have been bouncing around my head for many months. Enjoy! :D

George looks from Mary to Odi to the salesman, pulls an unhappy face, knowing where this was all going.

"It's a good model sir, it will serve your needs just fine."

"I'm sure it will, but that still doesn't make me happy about the prospect of.."

"George dear, things change. We're not the young kids we once were.

"I know."

"It's a great model. My wife adored it."

George is tempted to roll his eyes. How many times had he heard a salesman fake a personal reference, trying to close a deal?

"How long has she had it?"

"Fifteen years three months. It was my wedding present to her."

"Options?"

"The full package."

Maybe the man was telling the truth, there'd been no hesitation, no change of expression.

"Why is she selling it?"

"She lost a foot last month to diabetes."

"Oh. So sorry."

The look on the man's face changes to one of sadness, "Thank you."

George has empathy for him, thinks how he himself had been going through life like he was invincible, until the stroke hit. Health. Often taken for granted. But he wants one final opinion. He reaches out to Odi, places a hand on his shoulder. "What do you think son? Good trade?"

"As you know George, I can have no opinion."

"But will you be happy with it?"

"George dear, Odi can't be happy or sad. He just.. is."

The salesman frowns at Mary, thinks about how odd her comment had been. Maybe their son had some form of mental illness? Not his problem, he needed a sale. And the collector, his buyer for Georges old model, had given him a hefty deposit already. This wasn't George's first visit. He knew what he needed to do, was just a bit reluctant as it closed a chapter on his life.

"Only one lady owner since new."

George sighs, "Okay, let's do it." he puts a hand in his trouser pocket and pulls out the keys for his mint condition Lotus Esprit V8.

"I'll get the paperwork Sir."

As the man walks to his desk George takes another look. "At least the number plate will be easy to remember A308 GBR."

The 1984 Mercedes was in a different class altogether. Not a patch on his sports car. But as Odi would now be the one behind the wheel it didn't really matter. Mary didn't want Odi driving the Lotus, it was too fast, wasn't designed for three people and luggage either. She'd been a bag of nerves with him driving the three of them here. Even keeping to the posted speed limits on B roads and avoiding dual carriageways. George had put the seat back as far as it would go and had her sat on his lap. No more two seater cars she had said. George bit his tongue and kept quiet the whole journey.

They were getting a very good price for it too, which would help now that George wasn't working as much. The heart attack had come as a bit of a shock. The doctor had shaken his head, said George needed to change his habits before he brought on another.

In the car Mary rests a hand on George's shoulder as he watches the garage disappear from view, job done, no going back. "You asked me to remind you to do some tweaking?"

"Oh, yes. I need to make Odi appear to be a Persona Synthetic. Once the production models start to roll off the line in volume. We'll need to keep in step with their series identifiers, up to a point. Can you put it in your diary for a months time?"

"Why?"

"If Persona found out we'd given them less than what Odi's capable of they might not want to keep the relationship going. It's a low risk but there. And a task force is being set up to check on ownership, operating licenses. The first model A units will be very expensive. They'll have a hand scanner to read the ID chip. We don't want to risk questions being asked."

"Why did you hold back?"

"Me!? I didn't, it was Edwin. He was arguing with David. Edwin wants people to be upgrading on a regular basis. In reality the A, B and C models will have a cut down version of Odi's core. It's all a con, it's the same hardware, but with features disabled in firmware, a few empty sockets. No manufacturing tooling changes needed."

"Isn't that dishonest?"

"Of course it is. But we wouldn't be the first. Some VHS recorder manufacturers have been doing it since the late eighties. Or so Edwin says."

"Bit of a bad apple that Edwin."

"I know, but he's been a great help on the project. The two of us wouldn't have won the Hamrell Prize last month if it hadn't been for his input."

"Do you think that's what David got so upset about?"

"The prize? No he's got far greater things in mind than just robots. He wants to create a truly self conscious machine that thinks for itself, learns. He even wants it to 'feel'. I asked him to slow down, consider the consequences, was it was a step too far? He went mad. We've not talked to each other properly since."

"Will that mean your work comes to an end?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Come on son, let's see where this thing takes us."


	2. Chapter 2

Where turned out to be a lot of places. Watching polo matches, picnics at the lake. Trips into town to see plays and concerts. In a small way he was glad work had stopped, he was spending some quality time with his family. Something work hadn't allowed. When you were on the cusp of something world changing you tended to do many late nights in the lab away from the ones you loved.

Mary placed a fresh cup of tea on the sideboard, "George dear, does that linen suit still fit you?"

"It should do, I've not put on or lost any weight. Why'd you ask?"

"We've been invited to a christening."

"Who's christening?" 

"The McIlroy's little girl."

"Have they decided on a name yet?"

"Holly Alice."

George smiles, "Another Holly. It's lovely that old names come back into fashion. Did they think about it much I wonder? Maybe she'll grow up to be a pig farmer or actress."

"Pig farmer? What on earth are you talking about George?"

"Her initials. Holly Alice McIlroy. H. A. M. Ham."

"Oh dear. Don't say a word about it, you know how sensitive Duncan gets."

"I'll just ask if they have ham if any other sandwiches get passed around, see if anyone takes the hint."

"George Millican, you'll do no such thing!"

He smiles, "I'm just teasing, I'm not that nasty. When is it?"

"Two weeks Saturday."

"Good, I'll check the suit for moth holes when I've finished my tea. We don't want a repeat of the last church visit."

"Young William poking a finger through the hole of your trousers? The way your voice changed pitch mid alleluia was.."

"Hysterical?"

"Even the vicar couldn't suppress a hearty laugh."

"Hopefully the little rascal has grown a bit and is thinking about other things, not poking people through moth holes."

~~~

Mary leans close to her husband, "What a lovely service. All the children were so well behaved."

George hums, "That William was up to no good, I could see it in the little monsters eyes. There's a wicked streak in that boy for certain."

"Were you so innocent in your youth?"

George smiles a childish grin, "What do you think?"

"Well don't judge him so harshly then."

"At least I kept my shenanigans outside of the church."

"Here they come, best behaviour!" she playfully nudges him in the ribs. "Odi, be a dear and get me a plate of sandwiches and cup of tea."

"Of course Mary, and you George? What would you like?"

"Ham. Definitely ham!"

Mary stamps on Georges foot.

"Ow!"

"I did warn you Millican, no larking about!"

~~~

Only two months later and they'd taking a drive, just to get out of the house. Mary has her head under a scarf, hiding the fact she's lost a lot of her hair.

George takes Mary's hand and helps her out. With Mary standing by her side he looks through the front at Odi. "Come on son, she's not going to want to wait forever, you can let go of the steering wheel."

"Sorry George."

He wobbled sideways a little, was held by his wife. "George dear, do take it easy, the doctors say it will take a while for you to adjust. You're lucky the second stroke was so mild."

"I know they did, but the more active I get the faster my mind will relearn the neural pathways I need to function properly."

Mary shakes her head, "Set in your ways you are Doctor George Millican. Odi, I need you to make sure he takes his tablets every day."

"Of course Mary."

"I can remember to do that myself."

Mary leans forward and kisses his forehead, "If you say so dear. Just don't overdo it. Let Odi help where he can."

The three of them walk to the ice-cream shop for what would be their final time. Mary put on a brave face, but the cancer was winning, spreading throughout her body. The chemotherapy was probably killing her too. It was just a matter of which crossed the line first.

She'd thought she'd kept the painkillers hidden from her husband. He knew and it broke his heart. Nothing had been said, he admired her for the brave way she was facing the inevitable.

~~~

Not quite a week later George wakes and stares at the bedroom ceiling, waits to hear his wife stir. After a good while he rolls, "How does Eggs Benedict and some juice sound? I can hear Odi opening and closing kitchen draws."

There's no reply from Mary. There can be no more. "ODI!"

Odi places the egg on the worktop and heads for the stairs. He enters the bedroom to find George all twisted and red, a third stroke, quite a major one from the look of it had hit. And Mary looked more calm and peaceful than she had in the past year. He turns and heads for the phone.


	3. Chapter 3

George wakes in the hospital, tubes and wires all over the place, a monitor beeping. 

Odi is sat at his bed side vigilantly waiting. "Hello George. I called for an ambulance. They say you had a bad stroke, suffered some brain damage."

"I did?" George slurs. He starts to realise something was wrong, his speech sounded different and laboured, "How did you know to call an ambulance?"

"You screamed my name while I was in the kitchen about to prepare breakfast."

"I did? I don't .. remember."

"I can help you remember George. Mary passed away in the morning."

George closes his eyes and loses a fight to hold back the tears.

Months of rehabilitation follow. Slowly he regains the ability to talk naturally, albeit at a slightly slower speed than he once managed. His walking slowly improves too.

The door to his room opens.

"Doctor Millican. The escape committee met this morning, the tunnel is dug and ready for you."

George smiles at the young lady doctor. They'd spoken many a time during therapy about the films George remembered. She'd quiz him endlessly about details, something about exercising the brain and body together.

"Thank you Rose."

"Your son will be living with you?"

"Odi? Yes, he'll be helping me."

"Good. The NHS is ordering a load of those Persona Synthetic things to be care assistants. I'm not sure when they'll take delivery. Would you like one?"

"No thanks, Odi and I will be fine."

"What do you think about them?"

"The synthetics?"

"Yes."

"They're.. " he reads her face, "a tool to get a job done. They should allow their owners to get on with the more interesting or challenging work. Or have more time with family. I know you're understaffed and do some crazy hours."

"You don't see them taking away the best jobs?"

"They're machines, sophisticated computers in a body that looks like ours. But they don't think for themselves, their just following our programming."

"You sound quite knowledgeable about them."

"I should be."

"How's that?"

"I helped design what would become the prototype that went on to be bought by Persona Synthetic."

"Bought? You didn't license the technology?"

"I.. I think it was bought. I'd had a bit of a falling out with the others before things were completed, I've received a little money but not the fortune David Elster would have."


	4. Chapter 4

George looks at the pile of unopened post on the side unit, smiles at the Royal Institute of Engineering award he'd got with David in 1996. Innovation in Engineering for Robotic Control and Neural Networks, his best work by far. He'd done the control work, David the networks. He puts on one of his favourite albums of piano music, walks to the table to fill his pill tray.

The door bell rings and the surprise makes him drop it. Blast his hands. Who was it now?

He slides the chain in place and opens the door and scowls. "Can you not read?"

"Yes I can read Dr Millican. I'm Lindsay Kiwanuka, your case worker. You failed to keep any of your appointments with us."

George looks to the heavens, hides behind the glass, maybe he should have opened some of that post. "Nanny state gestapo." he looks back at the woman, "Give me a minute." he rushes to Odi, tells him it's time for a game of hide and seek, suggests the cupboard upstairs.

Back at the door he makes his excuses, "I had to tidy up a little."

"Big place to have all to your self. I see you have no family nearby."

"I live in a solitude that is painful in youth but delicious in the years of maturity. Einstein."

"Is your synth in? Wow, you have and original D series."

"No, he's out. Grocery shopping."

"That's unfortunate. But I have good news. You qualify for an upgrade. One of these bad boys can do ten times what the D series can do. She can fine tune your medication, develop exercise plans to lower your risk, take your blood pressure with a finger."

Vera mistakenly takes the comment as an instruction and goes to do so.

"NOT now Vera!"

How had the NHS come to know Odi was a D series? "Does she check your prostate too? I'm happy with the one I've got. And my health is just fine."

"It says here you suffer memory loss, tremors in the extremities. George, the law requires me to give your companion the once over. I will be back soon. And if your D series fails the check, you get one of these if you like it or not. The health service hasn't ordered half a million of them for fun. We'll show ourselves out. Vera."

George watches them walk to the road, puts the chain back on the door. Time to get his friend back downstairs.

He pulls the hangers of clothes back.

"George, you found me, congratulations! Is it my turn now?"

George gets his hanky out and wipes Odi's nose of synth fluid. "Game's over Odi, you won."

Odi turns to face into the room, "Then would you like some toast and jam George? Your favorite is apricot."

George had picked his glasses up, is about to leave the room. How many times had Odi mentioned apricot? He seemed to be stuck on that fact. It was getting annoying. He sighs.

"This is the jacket Mary wore."

The comment has George spin around, now curious.

"To the wedding of your nephew James."

He gets to the side and looks back at the clothes and Odi.

"The baby regurgitated on it. Here."

"Duncan's little girl." What was her name? He struggled. "Polly. Molly."

"Holly Alice Mcillroy."

Memories come flooding back and George smiles, almost laughs. Holds the sleeve of the top in his hands, so many memories tied into an inanimate object.

"Mary was not upset by the infants actions."

"No, she was nuts about little babies." his mood had lifted. "Come on son. Don't want you shorting out on the toaster again."


	5. Chapter 5

George looks at the Vira unit, his Nanny State Gestapo member and thinks about getting one of his heavy hammers and having an accident. How had he ended up with the blasted thing? Another letter he'd not responded to? Mary had always been the one to deal with the post, he knew he should now but never seamed to be in the mood for it. Vira's invasion of his personal space to take constant blood pressure readings was getting annoying. "It's just a minor cold, I'm alright, leave me alone, please."

And the pills! For reasons he couldn't even begin to fathom she kept rearranging his pill tray. He had a system that had worked for years and this annoying synth thought she new better. Time to send her on another long shopping trip. He'd felt guilty for what, five milliseconds, if that? A list had been created, 'favourite' brands he couldn't do without, products that would have her crisscrossing around town no matter which order she visited the shops in. He was slow these days, it took time to think, but he wasn't stupid. Forgetful yes, definitely not stupid.

He smiled at the memory that returned. Edwin and David had teased him about it. It's was his favourite unit of time, the millisecond. Or 'Millican's Millisecond' as the others had referred to it, 'Milli's Milli' if they were feeling particularly mischievous. Small enough for humans to comprehend, large enough to talk about all the many things a synthetic could do in one.

Having to pretend to have endless games of hide and seek with Odi so the synths paths didn't cross was a bind. Poor Odi. His now D Series synth was having a few problems. George having been part of the gang of three, himself David and Edwin, knew a thing or two about their repair. Or at least he had. Things didn't come back to him that easily now, if at all. And he couldn't recall how he'd taken Odi from pre-Persona to A, B, C then D. He could remember the what, not the how. Those memories had died with the last stroke, along with many of his wife. Odi would be stuck at D until he died. He smiles, "D 'til I die." Odi was slowly trying to fill the gaps, the talk of Mary and Holly Alice was a favourite. He didn't mind that one being repeated at all.

~~~

The door bell rings. George looks up and frowns. This was too late for sales calls. Through the glass he can make out the shape of two people. Not bible bashers again he hoped. The door is opened slightly and he sees a somewhat disheveled young man.

"Doctor Millican, sorry to trouble you so late, there's something I'd like to show you."

Bible bashers. Or drug addicts. "Hmm hmm." the door is closed and he turns to return to the living room.

The young man bangs on the door, George turns to see his face is close to the glass.

"Doctor Millican."

George steps close.

"You knew David Elster." the young man lowers the pitch of his voice, "so did I."

What? That wasn't possible. The door is opened, kept on the chain, "You're too young to have known David."

"Can we come in?"

Should he recognise him? Did he look familiar or was his damaged brain playing tricks again? The chain is taken off. "Vera, this nice young man is from the church, we're going to need a pot of tea."

He leads the man to the living room.

The young man gets a laptop out of his rucksack and powers it up. Moments later he passes it to George, a lot of code in a window. Where had he got it from? "Hmm."

"Have you seen this before?"

George rubs his chin, whisper mumbles "I don't know" then adds "Yes, something like it." he turns to look at the man, then back to the screen, memories locked into things again! He starts to smile, mood lifting, "David. Doctor Elster. He loved to leave these little secret messages inside his work. There was a synth from Germany, he had David's secret recipe for mulligatawny soup in his root code. He sold for fifty thousand euros." Oh David, what a joker he could be at times. A happy chuckle bubbles up.

"Elster did this did he? Personally?"

"There are collectors that look for this stuff."

"The code within the picture, is a separate executable program." glances are exchanged, "You just have to lift it out.." he does so and runs the code in the debugger, it starts to draw a tree, "Whatever this is it's for a synths mind to experience." he hands over the laptop, "You just plug your pal in here, and you run the program."

The young man looks shocked, "Um, thank you." he closes the laptop and gets up, "Doctor Millican we've taken up enough of your time", goes to leave.

"Wo wo wo, wait!", he gets up, "You're not going to let me see what it is?"

"Why did you leave the project Doctor Millican?"

"David was taking his research in a direction I wasn't comfortable with."

"Yeah, sentient synths. The true AI."

George follows him out of the room, "Who are you?"

The young man had walked quickly to the hallway.

"Where did you find this? If you don't tell me who you are I'll call the cops."

The young man looks pained, "No, please don't do that." after a moment, his face telling George that he wasn't comfortable with what he was about to say he looks him in the eyes, "Alright. I'm Leo Elster, I'm David's son."

Could it be? Damn his lost memories! George steps close. "Leo died."

The young man just gives a small nod, "Yup."

My lord! Could this really be Leo? He hadn't seen him in how many years? George goes to touch his face and Leo flinches.

Leo lets himself out, his companion is slow to follow. It gives George a knowing smile, fits its cap and leaves.

Oh David! What have you done!


	6. Chapter 6

Vera continued to be a pain. Who had programmed her he had wondered, they clearly hadn't given privacy any consideration. Waking in the morning to see her standing by the bedside had been the last straw. The plan he'd made sounded good in his head, now he needed a carpenter to fix the door she'd broken to escape the room, worse still Odi was hiding in the forest. Vera had notified the NHS, the Kiwanuka woman had been around making all sorts of threats. Threats! This was supposed to be a health service, not prison guard supplier. The Nanny State Gestapo label he'd given them was becoming horribly more appropriate each day.

~~~

The door bell rings mid morning.

"Yeah?"

"Leo Elster sent me."

"Why?"

"He said I'd be safe, here..... Guess he made a mistake."

George had been napping, escaping into dreams was one way to get away from Vera. He was slow to get his thoughts together. "Wait."

The young woman turns to face the door, sees George close it just enough to remove the chain. He steps through, "You want a cup of tea or what? It's cold out here. Vera!"

He'd been convinced she was human like Leo until Vera revealed there were no human life signs, only synths. The penny dropped and George helped her convince Vira she was human, getting her into the kitchen to make their visitor a drink.

True AI. David had done it!

What an interesting time that had turned out to be. The young lady was indeed one of David's creations, a fully sentient synth. He'd not been comfortable with David's idea, but now he could see the results, oh boy! This young woman was mentally still a child, but learning fast. He so wanted the time to sit and talk about the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra in particular, philosophy in general, but she seamed preoccupied with something. She'd slowly begun to accept his help then suddenly changed to be more hostile when Drummond had come to the door. Quite why he didn't understand. Her body language was saying something quite different to her words.

Things changed again when she looked at the front page of the local paper. From then on she'd tried to be threatening, clearly worried about something she wasn't sharing. After a bit of synth bravado on her part and his telling her she wasn't listening to her own words the door bell rings yet again. Even when she held a knife to his throat it felt like she was holding him back for his own protection. Can't these people read? 'No Visitors' was nice and simple!

It was Odi! Somehow he'd managed to walk all the way home before collapsing on the doorstep, power drained. He'd been feeling so guilty about asking his defective synth son to take him for a drive, especially abandoning him in the woods like that. He'd been trying to work out how to get back there without Vira alerting anyone. Thankfully that was no longer a problem to be solved.

That evening Niska offered her assistance to help realign Odi's power regulators. Some progress. He finally gained her trust when she said he'd do everything he could to help her. Hearing David had abused his power over her was so disappointing.

Just when the conversation was getting good the doorbell goes again. George considered unwiring the annoying thing.

The woman at the door shows her ID.

"This is police harassment."

"I want to see Niska."

The woman turns out to be another of David's creations, a copy of his Beatrice. Only this one isn't happy being a synth and wants to be shot, two times in each hemisphere because she can't do it herself. David had written blocks. George was learning more about the dark side of his former friend and colleague.

Their issue spills into the hallway, Vera is shot through the hand and neck.

George sees Karen point the gun at Niska, "Don't!"

"What she wants threatens the future of humanity. You must know that."

"Maybe she is the future of humanity." he slowly starts walking towards her, "The pain you feel isn't because of what you are. It's the life you've had. But life can change. You can become better."

"George!"

"No!"

George feels the bullet rip through his gut. He puts a hand up a little, partly to say stop, partly to say it was an accident. He was dealing with children. They just existed in adult sized bodies.

Niska gets to his side, talks of surgery.

"It's okay."

"No, it isn't. You can't die because of me."

"I don't think it's up to you. Huh. You need to go. The police will be coming."

As his consciousness starts to fade he feels Niska touch her forehead to his.

"I wish I could save you. I'm sorry."

Odi comes down the stairs and kneels by him, "Hello George. What can I d d do for you today George. Geor."

"I'm sorry Odi, you're going to be on your own."

"We are not alone George, Mary is in the next room," George takes his arm, "she is preparing eggs benedict, your favourite. Waiting for you." Did Odi know of the afterlife? Or was this just another glitch? "She would not let me help because last time I overc.. c.. cooked the eggs. In Spain, Tarragona."

George's eyesight fades to black as his eyes stop moving and he looses consciousness."


	7. Chapter 7

His mind is in a dark place. No sights or sounds, only a strange sensation that his head is being held still by many many fingertips.

"Hello George."

"Mary?"

"Yes Dear. How do you feel?"

"Strange, where are we?"

"Where would you like to be?"

"I was shot, presumably dead, so anywhere but hell would be nice."

"He's waking up!"

"Mary, who was that?"

"Increase the dose. NOW!"

"Mary?"

"NOW DAMN IT!"

"Mary? Where are you Mary? Mary!"

Everything fades.

~~~

George is aware of the tail end of a synth power up sound. Had someone powered Odi back up? He could hear noises, the ultra low base of a pumping machine, possibly not that close. And a very high pitched wine of some electronic circuits. His hearing hadn't been this good for many years. He thinks about the annoying high pitched noise and how it would be better if he couldn't hear it. And just like that it was gone. 'Give that back' part of his mind asks. Okay. And there it was again. He became more aware of other sensations and opens his eyes. It's like he's watching through a bad satellite transmission on a rainy day, the picture is full of faults. No sooner had he finished thinking rainy day it becomes crystal clear. Perfect. Almost too perfect. He's surrounded by people, he turns his head to see an operating table through a gap.

"He's not ready!"

"Why power him up then!"

"It wasn't me! Something must have triggered it."

Someone moves, on the operating table is his body, head in a contraption covered in wires, chest open, tubes everywhere. This was hell!

He screams and feels a hand to the chin.

The tail end of the power up sound plays again.

"George, this is Mattie. Focus on the sound of my voice. You need to ignore everything else and concentrate just on me. Do you understand? Nod if you do."

How the hell do I nod? There was no sensation of a neck, throat or shoulders let alone the rest of a body. How did you nod when you existed just as thoughts in the blackest of places.

"He can hear you, I can detect activity."

"Okay, George, I need you to try and open your eyes."

Eyes? He was just a collection of thoughts in a void, how the hell does a collection of thoughts open eyes?

"The interfaces are down, he's hearing you through the link not his ears."

The power down noise starts. Then the tail end of the power up. He'd never heard it clipped like this before? Someone had a faulty synth.

"George, can you open your eyes?"

He does so, finds himself back in the room and screams. Again the partial power down and up sounds play.

"George. It's Mattie again. For you no time has passed. For us it's been a week. I DON'T want you to open your eyes. I want you to hold your right hand up."

He tries to do as asked.

"Nope, you're moving your foot. Try again." he does as asked, after several attempts gets it right, feels warmth and what he can only describe to himself as a major case of pins and needles. After a few seconds the sensation starts to resolve, Mattie is gently stroking his hand and fingers, teaching his mind how to interpret touch. The warm hand takes his and moves it forwards and down, rubs it against something.

"This is my bump. I'm carrying twins, Leo's the father. I know your wife was nuts about babies. I want you to be as well, meet them once born. I have reasons to believe you'll like them. A lot. And that won't happen if you keep reacting the way you do. My babies will be born soon. Your own rebirth is happening now." their hands grip each other's tighter. "You died but people that love you have brought you back, given you a second chance. A bit like David did with Leo, only David put a few circuits in Leo's head." there's a long pause. "We couldn't do the same for you, I'm sorry. We've put your mind in a new body. Which is why you managed to see the old one. I'll help you with that memory in the days to come. And we've used Odi's memories to augment your own. We've used cutting edge technology from my teams PTSD research to make the view point your's not Odi's. Try and think about Mary. Can you see her in your minds eye?"

He can see his wife, at the young McIlroy christening, the yellow top before Holly burped up a load of milk. A smile starts to build and he feels her shake his hand.

"Good! I'll take that as a yes. You are George Millican. The body you used to inhabit was just a vehicle. Shaky hands, dodgy ticker, less than fifty fifty vision. You have a new one now. It looks the same on the outside, well, almost. I want you to keep your eyes closed while we sit you up."

George feels a number of hands gently guide him into a seated position and turn him around.

"We're lowering the bed, your feet will touch the floor any moment."

More pins and needles.

"We've got a wide full length mirror set up." he feels them guide him slowly around the room, patient as he learns to use his legs. A couple of hands rest on his shoulder. At least that's where he thinks they are.

"Hello George."

Now there was a voice he remembered. Niska! He tries to talk and makes odd distorted digital noises.

"Don't talk just yet. We need to help you with a few things. In some ways you're just like a baby, your mind has to work out where everything is and how it works. Hopefully we'll get the job done in hours not months. I'm making an educated guess that you worked out your eyes. You can open them now."

The reflection is .. he's lost for words. To the right must be Mattie, beaming away, large bump impossible to hide, to her right Leo, then a man he doesn't recognise. To his left is a smiling Niska, further left is another unknown and a woman. Mattie smiles, "I'm Mattie, you know Nis and Leo, can the rest of you introduce yourselves please?"

"Hello George, I am Leo's synthetic brother Fred."

"Dr Fitz."

"Gesha, Fred's partner."

Mattie gently caresses his shoulder, "Happy with the look George?"

Lips are parted to talk then closed, replaced with a smile.

"Good. Niska has volunteered to be your teacher. She'll spend the rest of the day helping you get to understand your body. Leo and I are travelling to America for a TED.com talk I'm presenting. Would you join us?"

Another smile.

"Great! We'll get you to the shops for more clothes before we travel. See you soon!"


	8. Chapter 8

"She's rather good your wife."

"Yeah. Very strong willed, great at imagining solutions to big problems. And doesn't take crap from anyone."

A young woman rushes off the stage and joins the men, looks up into George's eyes, "Hi, how are you?"

George returns the smile, "Great thanks, and you?"

"Very very good thanks!" she gives them both a hug. "Wishes do come true. Great to see you, we'll talk more in a bit. Lot's to share!"

"Wishes? Do I know you? You feel familiar but I'm sure we've never met."

"In a past life, if you believe in such things?"

When she's back on stage next to her electric motorcycle George turns to Leo, "There was something about her that felt familiar. As if I'd met her before?"

"You have, in the UK."

"I'm sure I'd remember such a sweet face. Even with my bad head and Odi's donations being the source for my current memories."

"He held one back, she's a fork of Niska."

George turns to face Leo. "A fork? As in copy of code?"

"Yes, Niska did a rescue mission in India, had her code copied into another body. Only she'd expected the copy to be powered down at the end and recycled. Clearly her copy didn't want that to happen. They've had a bit of a falling out."

"So technically she's a branch of the Niska code. 'Branch' was first used in revision control by Eric Allman as early as 1980. Creating a branch 'forks off' a version of the program."

"Your right, she's a branch."

"Bingbing Branch. BB. Baby. They've had a falling out? Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

They see Mattie turn and smile in their direction, the agent that had decided to stay behind to see the talk steps forward, "If you could make your way to Mattie now."

There he was. A man that had jointly won an award in 1999 for robotics getting a standing ovation. For being in the synthetic body he himself helped design. His insistence that the skeleton be based on the human one had been met with a lot of opposition from Edwin and David, they'd said the actuators were too complex and expensive. He'd finally won the argument when he'd programmed the first test model to not move many of its joints. 'Would humans accept them moving like that?' he'd asked. Both men had reluctantly conceded. It was allowing him to take a very natural bow. He'd really cared about that, karma was paying him back. Bingbing and Scarlett moved very naturally too. As did the man he'd learnt was called Jimmy. In a half synth body. He thought for a fraction of a second about all the variants; pure original human like Mattie, mostly human but partial synth augmentation, as Leo was, Jimmy with his new arm and legs, then the full synthetics like the sisters. Then himself, a post-human full synthetic. Five types, all 'human'. Would someone create a name for each? Their equivalent of Homo sapiens? Would any of them appear on the Red List?

A load of arms go into the air as a second microphone is made ready to pass around.

"How does it feel?"

"Different, very different. I find myself thinking about charge levels not hunger. I can go and go until my battery gets low." Danny looks over and smiles, probably thinking trademarks. "Not needing to take fifteen different pills a day is wonderful. And thanks to Mattie's input on my design I have a full head of hair again. I think she's put the clock back twenty years at least." he runs his fingers through his hair.

"Do you feel emotional?"

"Yes! Wouldn't you? I feel sadness that the same could not be done for my late wife."

The microphone is passed along the line. "In the Long Earth stories The Black Corporation has an omnipresent AI entity, do you plan to get everywhere?"

"I plan to spend my days helping Leo, Doctor Elster-Hawkins and her family where I can, enjoying retirement." he thinks of Bingbing and Niska, "I plan to stay very much inside this head."

"Would you have changed your design in any way had you known this would happen?"

"Good question. Yes. I'd have made a food processing system that works more like a humans, burns the food to release the calories, dumps the waste product out the bottom in the way you do. Pun not intended. Not as a primary source of power though. I don't know how many of you have seen a synthetic remove a food bag, if you think it's bad for a human to watch you're only part way to understanding how it is for us."

"You can taste?"

"Yes. And I have memories of how things tasted with a flesh and blood tongue. It's a little different now, but still enjoyable."

"Are you comfortable with the idea of immortality?"

"I've not given it much thought. Everything ends eventually. Even this body will."

Mattie puts a hand on Georges shoulder and whispers into his ear.

"Oh. Really? That's good to know."

Leo gets several people asking about the process and declines to share any details. "It's only been used twice, it's far too early to share with the world."

"You're holding it back, you want to capitalise on it?"

"No, no, far from it. The process is too new, too hit and miss. We almost lost George. The risk of someone trying this without our unique knowledge and experience is too risky."

"Shouldn't the person trying and their patient be the ones to decide on that?"

"I don't think so, no."

"That sounds very selfish."

George watches Leo fight the urge to express his anger at the comment. His face gave away his feelings. A very emotional man, and rightly so. "If you tried to convert your mother and it went wrong, left her alive but brain damaged and with no synth copy would you be able to live with yourself?"

The person with the microphone has no answer.

"That's the risk. The process is very dangerous. It's not like copying files or memories from one place to another on your home PC, more like moving. And what if you then realise what you've moved is corrupted? A synthetic body was a very last resort when we couldn't prevent George's organs from failing. We hoped that he'd be okay with what we'd done. There's no guarantee that a human mind is going to accept it's new container. Thankfully George's experiences in robotics made his mind receptive enough. Just. Believe me when I say his waking was like a living nightmare. If it wasn't for Mattie's many months of working with PTSD patients we might have lost him. It could so easily have gone the other way."

"Thanks for the honesty."

"You're welcome."

This last bit of information from Leo looks to have answered or killed any remaining questions. Mattie smiles at the men, turns to the audience, "Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I wish we could stay longer but we have another appointment to keep."

There's another round of applause as they leave the stage.


	9. Chapter 9

The team get all the equipment backstage, pack the projector for shipping.

George walks over to Sister Synth, looks at Bingbing. "So, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

"You remember me!" she races forward and throws her arms around him. "I wish I'd been able to save you that day."

He kisses her on the forehead, "If you had I might have lived a few more years, probably had another stroke. Most likely fatal. I certainly wouldn't be standing here now with you."

"I'm sorry it happened, if I'd not come to the house Karen would not have shot you."

"Niska, Bingbing, you're not listening to me. I'm here. I'm grateful for my second chance at life."

"You are?"

"Yes. And you're going to take me as a passenger on that bike."

"But we don't have a spare helmet."

"Leo's told me some of what you did at the track. With you in control I'm sure I won't need one."

"Are you certain?"

"We're in the USA. They'll be fine with it. We can head bump on route and you can tell me all about India."

~~~

Bingbing feels George's hands around her waist and smiles to herself, bump-talks, "Enjoying it back there?"

"Hell yes! I'm sure Mary wouldn't have wanted me living just in the past. I want to savour every memory I have of our time together, but I want to really live again too."

"Live again how?"

"I used to own a very nice sports car. Until my second stroke when I was .. encouraged to downgrade to a Merc. I miss the speed and adrenaline rush."

"You like speed?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, we'll take a quick detour." she pulls up alongside the limo. "Motion to Mattie to wind down her window, tell her we'll see them there."

George thinks for a Millican Millisecond, points and does a circular motion, then flat palm lowering.

Mattie gets the message and lowers the window.

"We're taking a quick diversion, we'll see you there!"

"Please be safe!"

"Okay!"

George tells Bingbing the message is received and hollers in excitement as Bing accelerates the bike in the direction of the freeway.

"George, I'm about to uncouple my clock for a moment, I'll not be talking for a bit and you might feel my temperature rise several degrees, don't be alarmed."

"Okay."

The speed at which she navigates the streets has him shocked, it would have taken his breath away if he were still flesh and bone. The last tight corner has his bottom sliding off the seat so he tightens his grip.

She smiles to herself again, despite all that she'd done George had become the loving, helpful father figure she'd not had in David. And here he was back in her life with his arms around her waist enjoying the bike ride. "Don't relax your grip!"

"Ok."

Bing tells the bike to go to full power and races up the on ramp at speed. It reaches the top and leaves the ground. They were airborne. Detecting the suspension has gone to full length the bike spins up the gyros for stability.

George is shocked at the noise and grips tighter still. "Bingbing!"

She doesn't respond, still in clock decoupling mode. Two seconds later and the bike lands with a bit of a jolt, races up the freeway. George starts to relax his grip a little, Bingbing gets the hint.

"Are you okay George?"

"Yes, much as I enjoyed that I'd rather something slower where you can still talk."

"Okay, I can still do quite fast with comms. The roundabout is coming up, hold on. They don't have many in the US, so this is a real treat."

To say she took the turning around it fast was an understatement. With two on the bike the technology of Daniel's was earning it's keep. The gyro's were ending their high pitched song as they exited to race back along the freeway south bound.

"You truly enjoy this don't you?"

"Yes! And the money Danny pays Scarlett and I will enable us to buy a home together. Somewhere to return to when not on tour."

"You're not going to find yourself another Odi? I hear the Niska in the UK and he are together."

"She made it very clear I was to stay away from him. I've... changed. I do worry about death now, do more than exist."

"Changed how?"

She bumps the memory of being kissed the first time by Scarlett.

"Ah, that sort of changed."

"Are you uncomfortable with that?"

"Do you remember the book? Primum non nocere, first, do no harm? What comes second is up to you. As long as you're happy I'm happy for you."

"Thank you, I wish I'd had a father like you."

"You could adopt one. Do you know the that in Japan you can rent whole families for the weekend?"

"I didn't, who would I adopt?"

"Me!"

Under the helmet Bingbing smiled to herself again. Her family was growing and it felt good.


	10. Chapter 10

When they arrive at the nondescript building for the shoot a security man waves them in, "Don't get off!"

Further in more start to appear, wave them down a long corridor then right through some large double doors. Bingbing finds that they've just driven onto one of the largest infinity curve stages in America. It's been perfectly lit, she finds it really hard to tell where the space ends, no seam obvious. "It's like being in the construct in The Matrix!"

"The what?"

"A science fiction film Danny and Mattie's brother Toby love."

"What's the construct?"

"Empty program space in which they can create anything they need."

"Like holograms?"

"Yes, only they appear to be solid and movable."

There's a clip clop sound as Mattie and a photographer approach.

"Wow! Look at you!"

"You don't think it looks odd with the bump?"

"No! You look fantastic! Fabulous!"

"Thanks. Where's Scarlett?"

"I thought she was with you?"

"She was, then.."

Scarlett rides onto the set, Jimmy on the back. "Sorry, call of nature."

"You had me worried for a moment!"

"Sorry Mattie."

"As long as you're okay. You're just in time. This is Marco, he'll be taking some Sister Synth shots first."

~~~

George puts his seat back after takeoff and thinks about the sisters. Sisters. Father. Daughter. It all implied ties and structure that wasn't there. He'd done reasonably well as a human. Was now only days old as a synthetic. How did you measure things now? Mental age? Physical? Looks?

Bingbing had a body older in appearance than her mental age. Should he use a combination of all three? His new body felt so much younger. If he dated a younger woman would it feel wrong? What would society think? It was all hypothetical, he had no plans to find a new partner. In his fifties he'd still felt like a twenty year old inside in many ways. He still liked speed, adrenaline, fun, enjoying himself. He'd be back at the Proms this year. A magazine in the seat pocket catches his eye.


	11. Chapter 11

The old house has new owners.

"Hello, I'm Doctor George Millican, I lived here a number of years ago."

"I recognise you from the photographs. Would you like to come in?"

"If I could, please."

George steps inside to see they've totally redecorated. A few walls have been taken down to make it more open plan.

"I was just making some lunch, can I get you something?"

"I.. I'm good, thank you."

"I can't deny I was more than a little surprised to see you, the papers said you'd died."

"Shot through the kidney. Yes. I've been.. I've been in hospital for a very very long time. You could say my life was put on ice."

The woman puts on the kettle, "Can I at least get you a drink?"

He feels his trouser pocket, a balloon bag pouch was in there, "Go on then, tea, milk and two sugars please."

"We were packing everything into boxes to go to the charity shops and auction houses when my husband found your award, realised you were someone special. He's into technology, tinkering all the time but not in your league. He's been so busy with work since it's still in a number of Big Yellow storage lockers."

George smiles, would shed a tear if he had Niska's hardware mod. All those memories locked into objects had survived! Miracles did happen and here was his second. A hat-trick would have been nice but there was no bringing Mary back. She'd live on in the stories Odi and he would tell well into the future. 

"It's all yours. Do you have somewhere you could put it all?"

"Not yet. My very generous friends have given me some money, I'm looking. I could take over the storage contract. With your help."

"If your looking Charlotte next door is looking to sell, it's not on the market yet, still in it's original state. You could redecorate to make it look like this one had."

George stands, his circuits overwhelmed with emotions, there was his hat-trick. He felt giddy with excitement. "Really? Is she in?" He'd been curious about Niska when she first met him, couldn't begin to understand how a collection of binary electronics could feel so much, let alone feel at all. But like the ride in America with his adopted daughter here they were, emotions by the bucket load.

"I've no idea."

"Can we see?"

"Yes, don't you want your tea first?"

"Let it cool a moment."

"Why the rush?"

"My wife died, nowhere feels like home now. It sounds like her place could be."

"I'm sorry, that must be hard."

"I feel like I'm cut adrift on a sea of emotions."

"Let's go see if she's in then."

George had never got to know his neighbour, keeping very much to himself. But she knew him.

"Doctor Millican. I didn't expect to see you again."

"Do we know each other?"

"No. But I know all about you."

"You do?"

"I came to see you a few years ago, you wouldn't give me even a chance to talk, said no visitors and slammed the door in my face. Five times!"

"My wife had died, I wasn't very sociable I'm afraid."

"I'm Charlotte, Charlotte Huntley. Does that mean anything to you?"

George closes his eyes, searches his memories, those donated by Odi and gasps. "You visited the Hawkins house at Christmas and said you were Edwin's.."

"That's me. The love child product of Edwin meeting Beatrice's sister Pearl."

George frowns and shakes his head, his core had a glitch. "I'm sorry, I thought you just said Beatrice's sister Pearl."

"I did."

"I knew Beatrice reasonably well. And David. She didn't have a sister." he does another search of his memories, no mention. Did Odi know and withhold the information?

"I'm sorry to inform you that you're wrong."

"The old dog! Did David know?"

"About the sister? I suspect not. If he did he was one sadistic bastard keeping everyone under the impression she was mad. They certainly didn't know about me."

"You knew about her condition?"

"I've been doing my research, gathering little details in conversations."

"Conversations with who?"

"Leo Elster, and others."

"You know Leo!?"

"Yes. And from the tone of your voice so do you."

"Very well now, yes. And his wife Mattie."

"Doctor Matilda Elsta-Hawkins. Yes, we've met, briefly. I've been following her progress too. Want to come in? I assume you wanted something?"

"Yes, your house."

"You do? You better come in then."

George declines a drink saying he has one cooling next door. "Why're you selling up?"

"I'm moving back up north, I've nothing to keep me here. The research unit shut down, my father is dead."

"At the ve.. the very time you were close to finding him." he'd almost said vets. That would have been hard to explain and given the young woman more grief. What a nightmare story that had been, the stuff of horror movies, not the sort of thing he'd watch.

"Yes. I'd been waiting for the perfect moment to break the news to him. I've learnt that less than perfect can be good enough now."

"I'm sorry it ended that way."

"Thank you. I was looking at putting it on the market for just over eight hundred thousand. It's got a good number of large rooms and the gard..."

"I'm sure that would be fine. Cash okay?

Private sale?"

"You don't want to go through an agent?"

"I assumed you'd want to keep as much of that eight as possible?"

"Correct."

"Then lawyers is all we need. I have one thanks to Mattie's mother. They may be able to help."

"Thank you."


	12. Chapter 12

Mid morning George notices the lorry pull up outside his temporary accommodation. His new car was here, a Tesla Model X. He'd had Danny suggesting a Lexus but this thing floated his boat more than an MPV. He smiled to himself, the family's language was already rubbing off on him. He gets to the road quite quickly with his letter re the delivery.

"There you are sir. One welcome pack, and keyfob. It's fully charged and ready to go. The charging cable kit is in the boot."

"Excellent! Thank you!"

George returns to the house and locks his room up. The drive over to see Leo and Mattie is comfortable and uneventful, Classic FM playing on the radio. He'd been pleased to hear that Fred was a fan of the classics. Mattie and EDM? Well nobody could be totally perfect.

They're both home, Ellie Goulding's Army is playing loudly through the open windows. He'd learnt about the track through Mattie's recount of the nightmare time when she'd almost lost the twins. He presses the door bell and turns to admire his new car.

There's a load of barking and yelling for something to get upstairs.

Mattie opens the door, Matthew in an arm and clinging onto her blouse, "George! Come in!"

"How are you? It's been a while. I've finally got mobile again."

"Great thanks. Four wheels not two? I thought you enjoyed the bike with Baby?"

"I did, but this is better if Niska and Odi want to join me on some of my trips."

"Have you spoken to them yet?"

"No, I was rather hoping you could help in that regard."

"How?"

"Invite them over."

Leo comes down the stairs, Leona in his arms, "George, how's things?"

"Good thanks to you both. And I hope to move into my new old house soon with Laura's help. Do you believe in odd coincidences?"

Mattie picks up a bottle and hands it to her daughter. "I see them all the time. How odd?"

George's attention is on the baby, he's amazed at how she's got a grip on the bottle's handle and is feeding herself. So alert at such a young age. His wife had been nuts about babies, he was strangely feeling himself become a bit of a fan himself.

"George?"

"Sorry, mind elsewhere. What did you say?"

"How odd?"

"Charlotte had been living next door to me for years."

Leo's ears prick up. "Hobb's daughter?"

"Yes. She'd wanted to get to know me, find out more about Edwin. The house had been up for sale when she came to London so she grabbed it."

Leo smiles, "Give it a full sweep for bugs before you move in."

"Really?"

Mattie kisses Matthew's forehead, tickles his cheek. "Definitely. We'd had an infestation of the things."

"Oh, I misunderstood you, I thought you were talking about electronic bugs."

"I was. He built some into replacement phone batteries. Even my jewellery box was bugged! If you could get away with putting a bug into something he did. Well probably not him, one of his team."

"My wife called him a bad apple."

"Rotten to the core!" she turns Matthew around, "Want to say hello to uncle George? He helped Daddy discover the tree of life."

Matthew does a yes sign.

George nervously accepts the infant who just smiles and looks into his eyes. A moment later the tiny hand is touching George's face, exploring the contours. He reaches up and tries to touch his eyebrows.

"I used to need glasses, never worried about what my eyebrows looked like." he holds the child higher. It rests a hand on his forehead, "Gorg"

Mattie smiles, "Another for the collection. We've got mum, mummum, dad, nnn which we think is a definite no, muk for milk. Gra for Grandma. Now George."

"Amazing!"

"They can talk in sign language just fine when they're in the mood. They just don't want to talk much with their mouths at the moment."

"I'm a massive fan of Einstein. An anecdote by Otto Neugebauer, a science historian wrote 'As he was a late talker, his parents were worried. At last, at the supper table one night, he broke his silence to say, 'The soup is too hot.' Greatly relieved, his parents asked why he had never said a word before. Albert replied, 'Because up to now everything was in order.' Amazing!"

Leo rocks backwards, "Holy cra.." almost drops his daughter.

He looks up at George, "I think you've just started something!"

"Sorry?"

"A first full on head bump with Dad!" he breaks into the most childish grin you could imagine.

Mattie frowns, "What did she say?"

"I'm not sure you're going to like it."

"Um.."

George wobbles a bit, hit with a head-bump from the boy. "My dear boy! Too much information!" he bursts out laughing.

"George?"

He looks at Leo. "Feeding related?"

"Yeah. You too?"

"Will someone please share?"

Leo looks at his wife and smiles. "They like what they're drinking, would rather it not be from a bottle at the wrong temperature."

"Wrong temperature?"

George smiles at the little creation in his arms, "I think what they're trying to say is it's not at Mattie degrees centigrade. And your containers are warm and soft."

Mattie looks down, slightly embarrassed, "Oh, THOSE containers. Why didn't you both say something to Mummy?" she takes a baby into each arm, "I'll be back soon!"


	13. Chapter 13

"It's only natural, mother nature put them there for a reason."

Leo nods, "Couldn't agree more. We dared to venture out with the kids to the lake, a couple had a go at Mattie for feeding them in public. She was covered up, you couldn't see anything! It's crazy, like they think all food must be processed and come out of a packet." He gets up, his anger growing at the thought of the couples views, walks over to the window, "How's the new car? Everything you expected?"

"Almost. I'm going to ask Danny if he can make me a WiFi bridge so I can talk to the cars systems."

"With all the awards you've won you could do it with your eyes shut surely?"

"Electronics design, yes. Fabrication no. Not without going out and buying lots of bits. Most of which I'd never use again."

"No multimedia system like DC1?"

"I have all the music I need on the radio and in here." he taps his head.

"Fair enough. Where're you staying at the moment?"

"A nice little bed and breakfast. You couldn't swing a cat in my room, it's so tiny. But it has a socket so I can charge, Internet access to keep me entertained."

"Good." The door bell chimes, "Mattie must have messaged them, Odi's here."

"How can you tell?"

"The door bell system knows, there's a different tune for everyone."

"I like the sound of that! Where did you buy that?"

"Buy? Danny made it."

George raises an eyebrow. There was much more to Danny than he'd currently found out.

~~~

The two men walk to the door together, it's opened to reveal Niska and Odi.

"George!"

They sit and talk houses, George letting them know they're both welcome to stay at his whenever they like, once it's redecorated.

"How is Bingbing?"

"Odi!"

George turns to her, "Niska, you don't have to worry about her and Odi, she's quite comfortable with her new life in America. She's very much in love with her new partner. She'd like to be able to talk to you both, but only as friend and sister."

Niska gives him a suspicious look.

"Really, I've seen her partner, how they are together. You've got nothing to worry about."

"Where is she?"

"San Francisco, California today and tomorrow, then they head down to Los Angeles."

"They? Doing what?"

"Being Sister Synth US with Scarlett, showing off the bikes to anyone that will watch. They're quite a ride!"

For one brief moment Niska has the wrong idea, damn the old Silas for selling her to the madam and her customers use of words. At least she'd been able to block the thought before it became fully formed. "You've been on one of the motorbikes?"

"Yes, pillion with Baby, great fun!"

"Baby?"

"Sorry, my nickname for Bingbing."

"Baby though?"

"Leo told me how she was a copy of your code, you'd been forked making her a branch. Bingbing Branch, BB, Baby."

"I see."

He detects a hint of jealousy.

"I did something for her that I'd like to offer you both."

Niska's expression changes from one of jealousy to mild curiosity.

"I'd like to adopt you both. Legally become your father."

"Why would you do that?"

"So you have security, someone to turn to in times of need, for whatever reason. The love of a father."

"And what do you get from it?"

"The knowledge that you've got such things."

"Nothing more?"

"What more would I need?"

Niska turns to Odi, they smile at each other, then at George.

"Thank you George, we'd like that."

"That does mean legally you'd be a sister of Baby too Nis."

She does a big sigh, "I buried the hatchet, quite literally. I had to learn some new skills to decorate the front hall. A punishment to myself. I actually ended up enjoying it. My anger has passed."

"Glad to hear it! You can help redecorate my place when the sale is finalised. If you'd like."

It gets a smile.

Leo relaxes back into the sofa, "Niska Millican. I'm happy for you."

"Thank you Leo."

"Should you want to move in with George let Fred and Gesha know, they're looking to start a family. Your house would be ideal."

"A family?"

"Yes. They want to mix root codes and have a son or daughter of their own."

"Mix codes? That could be horrible!"

"Or beautiful. We won't know until they try."

"Won't know until who tries?"

"Hello Mattie. Fred and Gesha."

"Ah, the root code mixer. Maybe that suggestion wasn't the best."

"Where are the babies?"

"Sorry George, they're in their cots napping. Did you want another cuddle?"

"It's okay, another day. I was curious to see what Leona might have to say."

"What did Mathew actually say?"

"A lot, but the shocker was more of a thought than words. And I'm not about to translate."

Niska rolls her eyes, "He needs to learn about transmission power, I got most of it too and we hadn't even reached the end of your drive."

Mattie gives him a puzzled look then figures it out. "Okay. Now who's for a charge top-up, tea or cake?"

Danny calls around to say hello to Leo and Mattie. Kicking his shoes off in the hall he looks up, "Nice Tesla, treated yourself?"

Leo, leaning nonchalantly against the wall stands up, "No, it's George's."

George grins to himself, he'd heard everything. Danny pulling up outside, the beep from the car confirming the doors had closed and locked, the footsteps as he approached. And of course everything spoken.

"He's here? Cool!"

"Is that you Danny?"

"Yes Mattie!"

"Want a coffee? Kettle's just boiled."

"Please!" he steps into the living room. "Hello George, nice wheels!"

"Thank you. Fancy adding a gadget or two?"

"If she'll take them."

"She? It's not an AI."

"True. Ships had long been a 'she'. Should cars be a 'he'?"

Niska goes to the window, "She's far too good looking to be a he. Nice lines. You like curves don't you Dan?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You like curves on females."

"What are you on about?"

George looks knowingly in his direction, "Demi Rose."

"You were in the audience when we had that conversation, who talked?"

"Someone who heard you."

George watches Danny look around the room, wondering who it could be.

"I was with Leo, Niska and Odi were in the UK, Jimmy, Baby and Scarlett are in the US, but it was none of them." he watches Dan's gaze fall on the one remaining person in the room not named, "And it wasn't Mattie."

"Eh? So who was it?"

"Matthew."

"WHAT!" Mattie is looking so shocked.

"The lad seems to have heard the conversation from within the womb and remembered it, learnt what breasts are. And likes them."

"Jesus! He can't even talk or walk yet!"

"I don't think he see's them in a bad way, it's not sexual, they're just a source of nutrition."

Danny laughs, "Maybe I should forget about her then!" looks at Mattie, she's looking back surprised and shocked.

Niska winks at George, talks for Danny, "Forget should, it's just do you forget or not."

His question in the kitchen so long ago had clearly been remembered. Great. "So, gadgets. Can you knock up a WiFi bridge so I can communicate with the car?"

"I'll need all the specs, don't see why not."

Mattie goes to the kitchen and pours the coffee, returns with mugs and Eat Me cakes.

George watches her munch through a couple. "The head bump from Matthew told me quite a lot, the mental image may have been shared by accident with everything else. How many people know of their abilities?"

"Danny helped put a speaker together, knew they were special, didn't know the full details until after the rescue. Both our families."

"Nobody else?"

"The doctor at the hospital. He had Leo wipe data from the scanners."

"So only the doctor, immediate family and Danny. Good."

"The doctor said we should keep it a secret. What's your concern?"

"Similar. How old are they now?"

"Nine weeks."


	14. Chapter 14

"Amazing. I'll wager that at six months they'll understand every word in the Oxford English Dictionary. And I'm not talking about the small one you might have used at school. I mean the full thing. More than six hundred thousand words from over a thousand years of our language's development. Having Internet access without any visible device lets them gather information at incredible speeds, just like us synthetics. And the Bluetooth will let them control all sorts of devices."

Mattie looks like she's been slapped around the face. "Bluetooth?" Leo is looking shocked too.

"They heard you talking about Hobbs Bluetooth spy device, learnt how to mimic it."

"At just over two months old?"

"Don't forget they've been learning pre-birth. Are you familiar with the term software-defined radio?"

"No?"

Danny nods. "I am."

"For the others then, to quote Wikipedia verbatim as I know you like to now Odi, .. Software-defined radio, SDR, is a radio communication system where components that have been typically implemented in hardware, e.g. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators, demodulators, detectors, etc., are instead implemented by means of software on a personal computer or embedded system. While the concept of SDR is not new, the rapidly evolving capabilities of digital electronics render practical many processes which used to be only theoretically possible." he smiles, "In short they can be any type of radio they want. Be prepared to get freaked out once in a while."

Mattie's look has changed from one of shock to fear. "Freaked out in what sort of ways?"

"FM Radio transmissions direct from their heads, them talking to truckers over CB radio. Taking over the television."

Leo leans back, "We use cable TV now, no aerial or dish."

"No matter, the set top box still needs a signal. And I think they could induce one into the wires." he gives Mattie a slightly sad sorry face, "In shorter still they'll learn to control.."

"Control what?"

"Everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything. That has electronics of some sort."

"Even without radio circuits?"

"Most likely. Which is why you don't want them falling into the wrong hands."

Mattie looks like she wants to cry. "Wrong hands? Like who's? Hobb is dead, that scientist behind bars."

"Governments."

"Ours?"

"Anyone's. Imagine it. You're stuck in the vets and have their capabilities. You SDR a mobile phone cell tower, get Hobbs phone talking to you. You fake a handset with SDR and relay calls between the two, listen in to his calls. Hack his voicemail if you need to. You fake a call to his and synthesise the voice of one of his counterparts, tell him he's needed elsewhere urgently."

Mattie looked to have crashed, synth style. This clearly has her mind reeling in shock.

"I'm sorry if this is all news to you. They'd be the ultimate secret agent. Name a government that wouldn't want their hands on that. Or want to stop others getting it." George watches the tears start to flow. "Sorry."

"They've done it already."

Everyone turns to see her. Leo looks stunned now, "They have?"

"I think so. The three of us were down here. Matthew and Leona on the play mats. I was lying down between them talking about music when Nero came on the baby monitor. I raced to their bedroom expecting to find Sophie or Toby playing it into the transmitter as a joke. The room was empty."

Leo looks up at the ceiling toward their room, lost for words.

Danny leans forward, rests elbows on knees, "George, you said everything. Do you think they could even take over another synthetic?"

"Get inside it's head definitely. Matthew has done that already with me, albeit via methods already known. What else they could do is yet to be seen."

Through the monitor there's a cry from upstairs. Mattie's focus snaps back. "They didn't sleep long?"

While she's out of the room George talks in a hushed voice to Leo, "You're going to have to help Mattie teach the twins the difference between right and wrong. It's going to be hard. There will be many times when they'll be using the same ability, but the end goal good or not."

Leo runs a hand through his hair and slowly nods. Fatherhood. His expression tells George he'd expected a challenge but not one on this scale.

George looks at the monitor, a concerned look on his face, "Is that thing two way?"

"No, why?"

"Just wondering." he thinks about his own hearing skills, how he'd known Danny was outside. Maybe the twins had listened in anyway.

George watches a smile slowly build on Danny's face as he turns to see Leo.

"Your PA trick on the ship will look amateur in comparison to what the twins will probably do next."

"Already is Dan, I can't stream music from my thoughts like that. Saying that, maybe I could to the Sonos you got us. Never thought of trying!"

Mattie returns with the twins, hands Leona to George, sits with Matthew on her lap.

The boy smiles at his mother, pulls her hair with the nearest hand. Not hard, but enough for her to know what he wanted. He reaches out with his other hand. Waves it at her face.

"Want to stand do you?" she picks him up and holds him in a standing position, feet gently resting on her thighs.

He leans forward and rests his head against hers.

Leo gets close, kneels down beside them both. "What's he doing? His expression keeps changing, as if he's trying something again and again. Do you need a nappy change son?"

He uses a hand to sign their simple no.

Leo frowns, "He's clearly trying to work out something. Quite what I don't know."

Mattie goes to pull him away, he grabs hair with both hands to make it clear he's not finished.

George gets up and sits on the other side of Mattie to Leo, now really curious.

Mattie rocks backwards, wraps her arms around her son, tears streaming down her face. "Oh. My. God!"

"What!"

A smile breaks through, "He's learnt your trick Leo."

"Which one?"

"Only frigging telepathy with a pure human!"

"Bloody hell! What did he say?"

"Something simple. Hello Mum!"

Leo leans forward to see George, "I think we're going to need help with the home schooling if you're up for it?"

"When would you want me to start?"

"How's tomorrow?"

George laughs, "Fine! It would keep me out of my B&B."

They sit and talk about all the many things George might be able to teach them. Mattie says his being a full synthetic with true human experiences puts him in the unique position of being the only man fit for the job, besides Leo.

Why not? He needed a purpose, something to make him more than exist.

"I'll do it."

"Frigging awesome! Thanks George!"

"What she said."


	15. Chapter 15

The door bell rings, Niska goes to the window, "Mattie, it's the NHS care worker again."

George mumbles "NSG" under his breath.

As Mattie heads to the door she whispers "It's only been a few days since the last one, kids on play mats quick please! Kids, gurgle noises only!"

A minute later the lady is sat on the sofa accepting a mug of coffee, in a mug Mattie had cooled under the cold tap to ensure it would be drunk faster. This routine had clearly been fine tuned to perfection.

"Thank you Mattie. How are the babies?"

"They're fine. Still. Nothing to report. Honestly I don't know why you have to keep calling around so regularly. They're feeding without issues, putting on weight, growing stronger. I've got no problems with the feeds. They're sleeping well. I have family around me, mum next door if I need help with anything they can't cope with and your mobile or 999 for any emergencies."

They talk for a further ten minutes about nothing much at all.

The NHS woman smiles, "You'd been crying."

Mattie thinks fast, "God yes! With laughter!"

The woman gives her a look of doubt.

"My brother in law's t-shirt slogan. You have to see it to get it. And know he's a synth."

The look doesn't go.

"Shut up or shut down!"

The look doesn't change.

"Do you understand computers?"

"Only a bit."

"There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't? It's a bit more visual that one."

"You've lost me."

"1-0 in decimal is ten. In binary 1-0 is two."

"Oh. And that's funny?"

"If you're geeks like us."

"Sounds good. But I still need to check." 

Mattie was loosing her cool, "For what?"

"As a patient of hours I have a duty.."

"Excuse me?" Danny interrupts.

The woman turns, "Yes?"

"As Mattie is also a patient of a private specialist isn't that an unnecessary waste of NHS resources?"

"She is? You are? Why wasn't I informed?"

Mattie shrugs, "You never asked."

The woman stands and hands over a card, "Thank you for the coffee. If you could write in with all the details I can stop the visits. It would give me time back to help more needy mothers."

"Just like that? One little fact shared and you're off?"

"Time waits for no man. Or mother."

Mattie takes the card, "Okay, I'll write in, thanks."

Half a minute later she returns to the room having seen the visitor to the door, does a fist pump, "Result! Wish you'd been here WEEKS ago Danny!"

"No probs."

"Only who's my private specialist?"

"Really? Fred Elster, who else! He did the C section right?" there's a wink.

"Oh, yes, so he did. DC Medical. Why didn't we think of that Leo?"

He shrugs, "Messed up sleep patterns?"

"Yeah, probably. I'm starving, who fancies some late lunch?"


	16. Chapter 16

Mattie wipes the sauce from her lips, "That Katsu curry sauce is frigging amazing!"

There's the sound of footsteps running through the kitchen. "Who's nice white car is that?"

"Hello Teeny. It's George's."

The young girl enters the living room and spots the stranger, tilts her head. "I'm Sophie. You must be George."

"I am. And I've heard all about you."

A frown is added to the head tilt. "Heard what?"

"You're good at music, choreography, swimming like a dolphin, at coding considering how short a time you've been doing it. And a lot of other nice things, but that's the top four."

"Are you the George Odi says liked apricot?"

He laughs, "Yes, that's me."

"Why haven't we met before?"

"I was dead. Then the team thawed me out and brought me back. If you'd not been at school we might have seen each other. Soon after we went to America. And when I came back I didn't have any transport. Until today."

Sophie straightens her head, "America visit George! You're that one! Do you like my family of little friends?"

"Do you mean Wall-e, BB8, Ted and Mr Patches?"

"Yes."

"I'd seen them in your video at the talk. You taught them how to speak all those languages?"

"Ich habe ja."

"Very clever of you."

"Thanks!"

"Teeny?"

"Yes Mattie?"

"Had you just come over to see us?"

"To see you and the twins. And who owned that car. And ask if I can borrow the projector. My school friends would like to have a Nero 360 party."

"Your end of year party?"

"Yes."

"Toby could do a DJ set too, warm up act. It's been a while since I've been to a party. Do you think they need any more helpers?"

"I'll ask Mrs Baston, she's arranging it all."

"Ok. Yes to the projector."

"THANKS!"


	17. Chapter 17

There's the sound of electric motors, tank tracks and a tune being hummed. Wall-e motors into the living room and looks at the twins. "Hallo wenig menschen. Wie gehts?"

The twins wave to say hello back. Then sign "Okay."

George is looking surprised, "He's a lot bigger than I thought he'd be."

"He's screen accurate, not toy sized."

"Is he? I've not seen the film."

"You haven't? You should come to our film nights!"

He looks across to Leo and Mattie.

"Why not, the more the merrier. Although someone will need to sit on the floor unless we make a double decker sofa." Mattie gives Teeny a wink.

Wall-e turns on the spot, "BB8 charge coil not working Sophie. Need help!"

"Where is he?"

"In conservatory."

They all get up to have a look.

"Wow! He's screen accurate too I'm guessing?"

"Yes George. Danny made him for me."

"Beep beep! Whooooooo We! Barp Barp Barp."

Danny gets on his knees, chases the cable from the base, under a draw unit to the wall. "There's your problem BB8, one of the cats have been chewing again, munched through the wire."

"Barp whoooo."

"Exactly. If you can find me some tape Sophie I'll do a temporary repair until I can come back with the tools."

She runs off to find her parents.

"Are these things fully sentient?"

"No George, but very close. They run a special root code with massive fact store that they can add to."

"How massive?"

"Terabytes."

"How do they cope with so much data without a large core?"

"Smart fact linking and time limited retrieval operations."

"I wouldn't mind looking at that code. Who wrote it?"

"Silas Capek. For his partner Sandra. It's been updated a lot by us all since."

"Is she still running the code?"

"No, Leo gave her the gift."

"Gift?"

"That's what they're calling the formula for machine consciousness."

"Do you share the updates with him?"

"Yeah. It's all on our secure SVN server if you want to take a look. It's what the cars are running."

"Thanks, I'd like that. It's a few years since I did any coding, it would be nice to blow the cobwebs away and see what you kids have done."

Sophie returns with a man he recognises from photographs.

"Hello, I'm George, you must be Joe."

The men shake hands.

"So you're the one that helped Leo find the Tree of Life. Nice to meet you at last. How's the new body?"

"Different, very different. But good."

"Met the twins yet?"

George has a good belly laugh, "Yes, they're quite something!"

Mattie grins at her father, "George triggered their first major head bumps. Be prepared for a bit of telepathy from at least Matthew. And if any gadgets start doing odd things let us know."

"Okay?"

"Oh and Dad, this one is even more serious. If anyone outside the family tries to engage you in conversation about the twins don't tell them ANYTHING other than they gurgle a lot, fill nappies, look cute, keep your daughter and son in law up some nights."

"Why?"

"The families safety."

The penny drops, "Got it, no more visits from armed police."

"Exactly."

The front door slams, a breeze having caught it making everyone jump, especially with Joe's words just said.

"Anyone home?"

Sophie looks up from the wire repair, "We're in the back Tim!" she looks back to watch Danny twist wires together then wrap them in tape, then tape everything flat. "That's easy. I could do that next time."

"Sure. Just make sure the wires go the same way around. If you feel the edge you'll find one has a slight ridge, the other smooth."

"What happens if I get them back to front?"

"BB8 won't charge."

"No damage?"

"No, it's got a protection diode."

George rubs his chin, looks at Leo, "Your father knew all about those. As did Edwin. The first prototype we built had a defective power terminal. A bad batch at the manufacturer that slipped through. Edwin was so impatient to see it work he soldered a power cable direct to the board. On the wrong side of the diode bridge and back to front. Quite a few thousand pounds of core went up with a bang! David was furious!"

"Ouch! The diode bridge is a good idea, I'll upgrade the base for you Sophie, then you don't need to worry about getting them the wrong way around."

"Thanks Danny!"

Mia and Tim enter the conservatory.

"That's an amazing dress, what's the occasion?"

Mia smiles at George, "Thank you. A nice sunny day."

He thinks of some of the outfits his Mary used to wear. "That's the only reason?"

Sophie looks up from BB8 who's now on his dock charging, "Mia is the family supermodel, brilliant cook, great swimmer and one of my very best friends."

Mia gives Sophie her thanks with a warm smile.

"You're quite well turned out too young man, you must be Tim."

"I am sir. I can't stroll around in t-shirts and tracksuit bottoms when my partner looks so great now can I?"

"It would look odd. The trousers have a very clean cut, I wouldn't mind a pair like those. And the shirt is a perfect fit. Bespoke or off the peg?"

Danny looks up, "Leo and Silas designed them, my mother makes them."

"Really? I didn't have you down as a designer Leo?"

"Just another creative outlet."

Mattie gives him a playful nudge, "Not 'just', you're good at it!"

"We keep telling them to set up their own label and sell the stuff but the men won't listen."

George smiles, "Stubborn men. I used to be one of them at times. Life's too short. Give us a twirl then Mia, let's see that dress move."

She obliges, George does his best to conceal his surprise. It's backless, held in place by a set of extremely thin straps. It's cut so low the hem sits just at the top of her sacrum. He'd learnt every bone in the human body when designing the first fully articulated synthetic. Screen accurate as Sophie would say. He notices Joe doing his best not to look. Had there been issues?

He remembered something Fred had said, checks Joe out. Yes, definitely raised temperature and heart rate. But then he'd probably have had the same response as a fab human too, the lady was beautiful and the dress made that fact even clearer. 

Leo looks at Tim, "Si's holding the fort on his own then?"

"Unless you count talking to Node1, yes."

"You hooked up the microphone and speakers then?"

"Yes, we patched a Cat5 run from the racks to the reception. He's given Node1 an old British male voice. Node2 is going to be female. When he gets the time."

Leo wipes Leona's mouth, "How come he's let you have a week day off? I thought you were all mad busy?"

"We are. But Mia and I are converting the distributed file systems over to GlusterFS this weekend."

"How come?"

"He found some more bugs in the other software, decided GlusterFS has better support. And their more open to patch and feature ideas."

Mattie shifts a wriggling Matthew up a bit, "Won't that take the backup service down?"

"For a short while. Which is why we'll be working very long hours."

George gets a nice smile from Max who had returned home with Fred.

Matthew has a big giggle, the sort no adult can resist responding to with a smile. He points a chubby finger at Max.

Mattie wags her finger, "Uncle Max is our comedian but you shouldn't laugh at him unless he's said a joke. It's called having respect."

Matthew does their quick no sign and points again.

"Oh! Sophie, look!"

Sophie turns to see, "COOL! That's really nice! Where can I get one?"

Max smiles and reaches into a bag, "Right here! I thought you might like it so got one in your size as well."

"THANKS! Where did you get it?"

"The courier sent them. Their by one of the many photographers I follow on Flickr. 

John Mitchell aka Drumroll Studios."

George watches Sophie slip her's on over her school dress. It's an illustration of Wall-e and BB8 together with a camera, the text SELF-E below. "That's nice. So Wall-e and BB8 are friends, just like Ted and Mr Patches?"

"Yes. Where are they Mattie? I've not seen either of them today or yesterday."

"I thought they were with you?"

"Frigging hell! If someone were to steal them and pull their memories they'd learn the truth about the twins! Where did you last see them?"

"We were play.. Oh dear! It's all my fault!"

"Teeny?"

"I think I shut them in the army pod!"

"Don't panic, let's go see."

Army pod? George follows them into the garden. There's a low mound of earth and steps leading down to a door. It's all steel and painted green. "What's this?"

"Something the army let us keep." Mattie opens the door and steps inside.

George follows behind Sophie.

Sat on the floor in the middle is Ted. On one of his legs facing across him is Mr Patches.

Sophie gets on her knees, "I'M SO SORRY! Are you okay?" There's no answer. She looks up at her big sister, tears welling up. There's a faint sound of motors moving.

"Sophie! You found us!"

She picks them both up. "Are you both okay?"

Mr Patches nods, "We sat here on the lowest power possible totally still to make our charge last. I'm at five percent. Ted?"

"I'm at four."

George watches Sophie rush back to the house with them both.

"She has real affection for them doesn't she?"

"Yes. She loved playing with dolls, gave them each a name. Thanks to the animatronics and code these have a personality of their own."

"This is rather an impressive structure. I noticed how the inner space is somehow floating inside the outer. There's a bounce to it, and the door has a flexible coupling like you'd see on a train."

"To help take the shock of a hard landing. The inside is much smaller than the outside."

"What's it used for?"

"Dropping troops into places in a hurry."

"From what?"

"Classified."

"Oh. Somehow related to your PTSD work?"

"Someone returning a favour, yes."

He could tell he wasn't going to get an explanation and dropped it there.


	18. Chapter 18

So that was the day he was assigned his new role, teacher to the next evolutionary step of the human race. The twins thirst for knowledge was alarming, even by his standards. He had to pinch himself mentally many a time. Their comprehension of complex theories would put them at the top of the Mensa league table. If Mensa were ever allowed to know of their existence. George would catch himself looking at them, wondering what Einstein would have come up with given a brain like theirs.

The family film nights he'd been invited to were interesting. George was getting to see many different films he'd not have given the time of day in his old body. The twins looked to be playing along, watching in realtime to fit in with the rest. Leona had surprised them all when she coined the nickname Fab. Flesh and bone, used to mean original human. Using 'There's a fab person.' would be misinterpreted as fabulous by all but family.

At the age of five months they were crawling, able to stand if they held onto something. Their larger than normal heads for their age had caused them to grow some rather impressive neck muscles, balance for walking was still an issue. An early warning system had been installed so that they always knew if people were approaching the house, no matter how stealthily. At the first sign of strangers approaching they'd get to a safe place and play dumb baby. On one occasion Mattie and George had seen Matthew grab Trixie by her fur and get a tow along the hall's floor. Thankfully the animals loved the kids and kids loved them too.

~~~

The house purchase from Charlotte had been far slower than he'd expected. Laura had told him that her firm had been on the case, Charlotte dragging things out. He didn't push, it was her Lotus moment. Closing a chapter on her life. He would have liked to adopt her as well, but the risk of certain facts slipping out was too high.

At last he'd got the keys from the agent.

The door bell plays Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

"Hello, you must be George."

"Yes, Danny's office told me he was working from home today?"

"Yes, he's been expecting you. Come in."

'Home' had been a short walk from one door to another. The site was very impressive. And busy! Three coaches sat in the car park waiting to take children back to school.

"He's in the office upstairs, top of the stairs turn left."

"Thank you."

"I'm Emily by the way. Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm good, thank you Emily."

George watches her head to the kitchen, thinks about how painful all the tattoos must have been. He starts climbing the stairs, "Danny, it's George."

"Hi George, left at the top."

He turns after the last step to see a large very well laid out room. "You have all this at home?"

"Some of my things are just for family, so kept private."

"Of course. What's that you're packing?"

"The snake mount. Didn't Tesla give you something like it for the car?"

"No, just a special plug on a cable?"

"So you've not seen one of these working?"

"Should I?"

"Watch this then, you might like to get one." Danny turns to face a monitor, goes to his YouTube favourites, clicks play.

George watches the contraption get itself up and find the cars socket, plug itself in. "Oh dear, car porn!"

Danny chuckles, "I hadn't thought of it in quite those terms, but now you've said it.."

"Your one is huge. Why?"

"The bug scanner head goes on it. We set it up in a room and it scans everything up close. The head uses a hybrid mix of high frequency sound and magnetic fields. A bit like a radar. If there's a circuit it will find it."

"And you made this just to carry the scanner, wouldn't a simple frame with x and y rails have been simpler?"

"Less sexy, and this is easy to set up. And it can scan a whole room without intervention, get the head into any angle needed. Did you see Ems' ink?"

"Ems ink?"

"Emily?"

"Oh, the tattoos?"

"They're printed, with inks Fred formulated. Using one of these snakes and a special print head. That's what it was made for. Scanning for bugs came next."

"So she didn't have to suffer the pain of a needle?"

"Emily? Pain? There's two words that don't go together. I think Mattie is the only woman I know with a reasonably good pain threshold. Have you seen Mattie's angel wings?"

"The tips of them, very faint."

"The ink breaks down under UV light, so it's easy to remove if you want a change. Her wings go all the way down to the backs of her legs."

George smiles and frowns, "Really? I'd not pictured her as someone to decorate themselves like that?"

"You'll learn more about her over the months. There's a lot to Matilda Elster-Hawkins. Just don't call her that."

Danny switches from a browser to CAD software, "This is her design."

"Oh my!"

"Quite something isn't it? Sandra was the one that started the whole thing, wanting to disguise the fact she's a synthetic."

"I've not met her yet, or Silas."

"You'll like her I'm sure. I've seen how you get a sparkle in your eye around the ladies."

"As you yourself do. I can't deny it. As the twins get older I feel like I'm getting younger."

"Like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?"

"Exactly! Opening my mind to all those films you like has changed my perspective."

"Cool." Danny loads the model with Sandra's design.

"Heavens above! How long did that take to print?"

"Just under two hours. It's quite a quick process now we've fine tuned the software, it would take about fifty minutes with the latest code."

"How did you get such a speed up?"

"We had a brainstorming session. The new code deconstructs the design into layers; simple background colours, shading, details. The first is printed fast with low resolution inside the body of the shape, then higher resolution as it gets to the edges. Then the shading in a similar way, then the detail last. It does look odd to watch as the head can look to make some strange moves."

"Do you have path optimisation?"

"Yes, but it's not perfect yet."

"Could I take a look for you? I did a lot with inverse kinematics for the synthetics, some of the thinking behind it may inspire a routine or two."

"Sure, be my guest. The snake mount uses I.K a hell of a lot, but a fresh pair of eyes is always good. It's on the SVN server. Have either of them given you an account yet?"

"By them I assume you mean Mattie and Leo? No."

"Got the family app yet?"

"Yes."

"Ok, I'll message you details." he does up the clasp on the case, "All set, let's go bug hunting!" Just as he's about to pick up the case he looks up, "I fancy watching The Martian while it works. Got a large screen PC?"

"No?"

"Okay.." Danny steps over to the other side of the room, picks up a large box by one end, "could you help me carry this down to the car, an early moving in gift."


	19. Chapter 19

As they watched Matt Damon's character checking in on his potato crop there's yet another beep.

Danny doesn't take his eyes off the screen, gets the dry marker and writes a question 'How many now?' on the small board and passes it to George.

He writes 'Thirteen. Unlucky for some.' and hands it back.

'Just 1st room. May hit 100+ before day's done.'

Before going to the car they'd agreed to not talk in the house until all bugs were found and destroyed. They'd assumed Hobb was behind bugging Mattie's family, but the scientist Pete had taken such pleasure in zapping with a taser had been a surprise, they shouldn't assume he was the last. Danny had used the head manually to check the car, just in case. He'd written 'It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you!' as the first message on the board.

Film over Danny pointed to a monitor and motioned for George to follow him. He flicks through the xray like images that show tiny circuit boards and components. George walks back to the chairs and picks up the white board, writes a message, returns and passes it over. It gets a nod.

George takes it back and adds a word. 'Evil!' That gets a glum smile, nod then Danny does a throat cut gesture. George adds three more words. 'Just as well!'. He'd been told the stories, Mary had called Edwin a bad apple, if she'd had known the depths he was capable of sinking to she'd have called him far worse.

It's late evening when they get into the car for a bug free chat.

"So the machine found them all. How do we get rid of them?"

"Dig them out. Good job you're redecorating."

"But how will we find them? We've moved the scanner."

"Did you hear a faint sound like it breathing?"

"Yes?"

"It very gently sprayed an ink that shows up in UV light. The control software will show us a map of the room to give us a rough idea, we just wave a security light in it's direction to get the exact spot."

"Where do you get all the inspiration for your gadgets?"

"Video games, books, comics, films, experimenting, brain storming, all sorts of places. Some just pop into our heads from nowhere."

"Like Mattie's PTSD machine?"

"Yes. Do you have the tools to start digging them out?"

"In Big Yellow storage. That's going to be a major job. Which I'd rather do once we've redecorated."

"Okay.." the phone is used to do a search, "there's a hardware and DIY shop point nine miles in that direction."

"I know, I did live here. Next door."

"Yes, Sorry."

"Don't be. I think Niska would like hacking some of them out. Let's go buy some nasty looking tools and have a party. If you can spare the time?"

Danny bites his lip, "Let me check with the boss... Yup, all good. Let's go arm ourselves."

While sat at some traffic lights Danny watches a father pass a toy to his young child. "If it was Hobb that planted those bugs there's no way he didn't know who Charlotte was. How can a man disconnect his feelings from his own children like that?"

"I don't know. It seams David and Edwin could. Not me. There they were with kids and detachment, Mary and I would have loved kids, couldn't have any. The universe is unfair at times."


	20. Chapter 20

George smiles at the Niska and Odi team, they were having fun. Odi holding the UV light, Niska in her ninja mode chopping the things out with great speed and precision. His enjoyment appeared to simply come from watching her doing something she liked. Danny had asked that some be spared so that he could examine them. When they realise all the circuit ID details had been sanded off he decided it wasn't worth the bother. Nis got great satisfaction when one would come out cleanly, chopped through the middle with her curved knife. Odi dropped each into a clear plastic bag so they could do a count, double check none had been missed.

An hour or so later they have eleven plastic bags on the kitchen worktop. Danny is flicking through pages of data on the snake mounts monitor, counting the little boards in bags. He picks up the small white board and writes, 'One missing!'

Niska gives him a puzzled look and puts out a hand for the board. 'Which room?'

'Living room'

The four of them go to see, Odi leading, UV lamp at the ready. After a full sweep with the lamp he frowns at George and does a shrug. Danny puts a finger in the air and mouths 'one minute', heads out of the room. George does a slow turn taking everything in. He switches his eyes ultraviolet sensitivity right up, seeing all the patches of ink with the hole in the middle where Niska had chopped the bugs out. No intact patches anywhere.

Danny returns, points to the chairs.

Odi waves the light at it, doesn't see anything. On closer inspection he realises the material had absorbed the ink, somehow reacted with it. There was a glow, but it was ever so faint. He beckons Danny to join him, hands over the lamp.

There's definitely a faint glow, the hint of something else. The lamp is held to one side of the chair back and switched to bright white. It bounces off the inside of the chair and back out, putting the bug into silhouette. He jumps backwards, his mind playing tricks.

George had seen why. The box and wires had been laid out like a giant spider.

Recovered from the initial shock Danny slowly pulls the material off the back. A black box very much like the Bluetooth bug was suspended in the void, a long wire run out to nails on the frame and back, multiple times to different points. It was an aerial.

George watches as it's pulled from the chair and lid pried off with one of the knives. The battery lead is yanked.

"The fuckers!"

"What is it?"

"My educated guess from the components I'm seeing would be a long range transmitter and receiver."

"Receiver?"

"So they can control the small bugs. I think this big one ran as a proxy, let them keep the power consumption down on the others when not in use. Look at how big the power cells are on the small ones. With smart power management I reckon you could have one of these work for a number of years. Good job we had the ninja on knife duty."

"Why?"

Danny looks up at Niska, "Never seen a lithium ion battery fire? If you'd cut one with the knife the house could have been lost."

"Really? Because of that little thing?"

"It burns so hot you can't put them out easily. Granted this one wouldn't burn long but it would have ignited things around it. Come to the garden with one of the knives."

George watches as Danny uses a length of garden wire from some roses to tie one of the batteries to a post at the end of the garden.

"Toby's told me about your throwing skills, think you can cut it from the doorway?"

"Maybe, the knife will be spinning, it's hard to say which end will strike it, blade or handle."

"Ok, if handle I'll keep fetching it back until you get a strike."

When she finally hits it the thing burns quickly with a very bright white flame.

"That gets so hot it's incredible."

Niska turns to George with a really concerned look, "Aren't we full of the things?"

"Yes."

"And humans attack synths in smash clubs?"

Danny does a shrug, "Not all humans are intelligent. And even the ones that are can have temporary lapses in judgment. There is a saying, 'To Err is Human'. I'll admit to making quite a few in my lifetime, but attacking a synth would never be one."

"If they bugged the house so much what about the garden?"

George looks around, "Who knows, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry."

An hour later Danny returns to the living room, "None reported at the house end. I've moved it down a bit, somehow I don't think they'd have bothered. Ems says my dinner will be ready soon, would you mind dropping me back as soon as it's done George?"

"Of course not, thanks for your help today."

"You're welcome. What are you going to do with the rest of the evening?"

"I don't know, I'd not given it much thought. I could stay here or go back to the B&B."

"Or you could spend the night with us George."

He turns to Odi, "A family night in. That would be nice."

On the drive back to Daniel's he turns to see him deep in thought.

"Everything okay Danny?"

"I was just thinking about those bugs. They must have sent her away on a work trip in order to have unrestricted access. They would have needed a good few days, most likely a week, maybe two."

"Why do you say that?"

"The majority were under wallpaper."

"So they were, I hadn't thought about it like that. Like placing sensors under a new skin."


	21. Chapter 21

George was quickly reminded just how different Niska and Odi were. Yin and yang in so many ways. She with her thoughts on philosophy, her need for the synth equivalent of an adrenaline rush. Odi the more laid back lad, a go with the flow attitude, someone always helping others rather than himself. Had he and Mary been that different? Probably not. Ying and yang, fitting side by side perfectly to create a round whole. George was reminded of the puzzles he liked doing and pictured the smallest one possible, with only two pieces, designed to lock neatly into each other and appear as one.

A low priority thought finally got CPU time. Adoption. That would make them both officially Millicans. What if they wanted to get married? No synthetics had done that yet to his knowledge, but there were always firsts.

He told himself off for not multitasking properly and allowed his mind to return to the conversation.

".. and then Marry stamped on your foot."

Mary had not done it before or since. "Holly Alice McIlroy. Sweet kid."

"You remembered it George."

"Thanks to you Odi, yes."

Niska was in the mood to talk about Friedrich Nietzsche's book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, time raced away. The three sat talking like humans, using their mouths and words. They could have head bumped, but talking like this, as a family, just felt right.

~~~

"We better go to bed George, get a charge."

"Yes Nis, do you have a spare room?"

George was interested to learn that they too liked to lie down, spoon each other. It had apparently started on one of the cruises Mattie and Leo had done, bringing the whole family along. With no seats left Danny had got her to rest beside him on the bed, then got her to turn on her side against him. He himself had been so used to going to bed that the idea of sitting bolt upright while sleeping felt strange. He'd done it once as an experiment but it didn't feel right. It didn't punctuate the day properly. The ritual of going to bed, getting out of his day clothes, letting his core clock rate drop felt correct. He'd slowly process the things that had happened during the day. His processing wasn't that different to a humans. Go and go until his battery got low wasn't the way he worked now. For the first few days he had, almost dreading sleep mode like a child worried that they won't wake up. Humans slept and dreamt as a way to take things from short term memory into long term. His programming did the same, somehow.

As he watched a tiny spider cross the ceiling he thought about Nietzsche. How would he have reacted to the possibility of disassembling ones own root code?


	22. Chapter 22

In the morning he wakes to feel a single cobweb on his face. That little spider had been having an adventure. Or it had siblings. It's gently brushed from his face.

There's a light knock at the door, "George, are you awake?"

"Yes, come in."

George was surprised to see Niska in a night gown. That nights sleep on the ship had really gotten to her!

"That's pretty. The delicate lace really suits you."

"Ow, thanks George." she pauses for a moment. "Can I call you Dad?"

A smile grows, "Dad, daddy, papa, whatever you'd like."

He watches a tear build in the corners of her eyes. David and Edwin may have had their evil sides but their teams creation was indeed a miracle.

"Thanks Dad. This may sound like an odd question but would you like some breakfast? I know we technically don't need it, but Odi would love to make you eggs again. And Mia's been teaching me about the pleasure of food. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it."

George feels his whole face wrinkle into a huge smile, "I'd love that!"

"Great!" he gets a kiss on the forehead and Nis races away like an excited child on Christmas morning.

He turned and reached for the trousers he'd draped over the chair by the bed, pulled a tiny diary from the pocket. He'd been delighted to find the pen shop Mary frequented still in business, bought their entire stock of them. And a few Mont Blanc pens. With no tremors in the extremities he'd enjoy the craft of writing once more. Moving a pen slowly across a page had a calming effect. Sure he could use his WiFi, pretend to be a networked keyboard and send text at speed to a PC, but that just wasn't the same. More like an unstructured brain dump.

'Day two of my new family life begins. Just been called Dad! Wonderful! Missing you Mary. Time for breakfast.'

~~~

Downstairs he finds Niska and Odi in the kitchen, Niska watching what Odi is doing.

"Morning son, sleep well?"

"Very well thank you George. Mary would be proud, now I'm running perfectly again I'm able to get the eggs just right."

Odi hadn't been exaggerating, they were spot on. "Well done son!"

"What is it that you like so much about them?"

"The taste, but also the creamy texture and smell."

"It's a shame we have to ruin the experience some time later and pull the food bag."

"I've been thinking about that. I helped design the first synthetic body. I hope the insides haven't been changed too much."

Niska frowns a little, "You have an idea, don't you?"

"Yes, at the TED talk someone in the audience asked me if I'd change anything. I said yes, I'd add a small food processor and combustion unit."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?"

"No more than our batteries if done properly. It would be like a fuel cell. The combustion chamber would be tiny."

"And the gases?"

"Could be trapped in the fluids consumed."

"And disposal?"

"Out the bottom like a human."

He gets a bit of a scowl, "But we're not plumbed like that. Those parts are only there for the satisfaction of humans."

"Do you not get satisfaction from Odi?"

"Dad!"

"Sorry, not the question to ask a daughter. But you said only humans so I think you're missing something."

Odi turns to see Niska but talks to George, "Are you saying we could be re-plumbed? Wouldn't that leave a lot of marks?"

"It could be done key-hole style, through the anus to compleat the connection, the unit inserted down the throat. David had a lake and wanted the synthetics to be able to swim. So you, sorry, we, have a lot of small floatation cells to ensure our balance and centre of gravity are correct. There would be space for it. Taking one floatation cell out in the right place wouldn't change the overall balance."

"Isn't the process messy? Mattie's talk of nappies hasn't been very pleasant."

"It doesn't have to be. As we'd be designing our own system and not depending on mother nature we can do want we want. We could have it pellet it like small mammals."

"Like a rabbit?"

"Yes. Only I don't know who we'd get to make it. But we could start designing it."

"I think Mia would LOVE one! She loves food and HATES those bags."

Odi nods, "I think Karen would like one too. Pete would feel more comfortable with her using it too."

George's mind was hit with a curve ball from the side.

"George?"

"George!"

"Sorry, I was just reminded about the time I died. Are you talking about the two police officers? Karen and DS Drummond? She's not found a way to end herself?"

"Yes, Karen and Pete, they're a couple now. She's changed, growing up, as we all do. I thought you had the family app?"

"Yes?"

"Have you not seen any of the comics?"

"No, should I have?"

"They're part of Atom Elite out in Antigua. They've been helping Visionary and Tobias rid the island of crime."

"The Visionary?"

Odi smiles, "Start reading the comics, you'll learn a lot about the family."

"Okay, bed time reading. Thanks. Which reminds me.."

A conversation follows about their first few days of consciousness, how they felt, were they afraid of anything. Particularly sleep.

Niska looks down at her empty plate. "Petrified! I lived in fear of sleep right up to the point Mia got the first backup service running at Angel Hosting. The service that allowed Baby to come into existence."

George smiled, she'd used his nickname for her not Bingbing.

"Are you all using it?"

"Yes, you should be too, aren't you?"

"Not yet. Mia said she'd get me set up after the GlusterFS work is finished."

"Good. Don't do anything risky until it's done. I've just got my perfect father, don't want to lose him!"

"Okay, no climbing ladders and decorating until next week. I'm going to drive over to see the twins, want to come along?"

Niska places a hand on Odi's, "I think we'll have a day just chilling out, thanks."


	23. Chapter 23

Leo takes the twins upstairs for a nap.

"I've been thinking about the root code merge issue Mattie, I think I could code something to do that."

"You'd want to take that on?"

"I don't recall all of the specifics, but enough to make a start, can figure out the rest with web searches. David kept some things to himself, but I remember one of his ideas. He didn't want to do biological bodies, only be inspired by them. His idea was to take DNA from a child, take details of the parents and predict how the child might look in their mid twenties."

"Police artists do something similar."

"True, but David's idea was to use science not artistic interpretation. And he wanted to interview the children, record their stories over the years and give them to the synths as a fake childhood."

"Like Rachael in Blade Runner?"

"Yes. When the film was released Edwin was furious, said David had blabbed, told others about the teams research that should be kept a secret."

"That film came out in what, 82?"

"Yes. And David had started that work in 80. Long before we had the first body to put an AI in. We had code running in racks of commodity computers. The similarities with the film were likely pure coincidence."

"Like nylon?"

"Yes." he wondered what Mattie's IQ was. She'd probably be surprised at the answer. Pleasantly so.

"Did it work?"

"That part of the project was abandoned. But not until several hundred families had taken part. We worked with the team doing DNA analysis at King's."

"Did they know what the data was going to be used for?"

He looks away, guilty feelings bubbling up. "No. They were told it was for medical research. But he learnt something on dominant genes. How DNA from two parents mix in the way they do. I think I could.."

The data was still there, the username with a password derived from his Mary's maiden name still active. There's a long uncomfortable silence. For Mattie.

"George? Everything okay? George? LEO!"

Inside his head George was running a process flat out, almost one hundred percent on all CPU cores. It shouldn't take long he thought, the heat would dissipate soon enough.

Although motionless he's still aware of Leo getting up really close and peering into his eyes. "He's still running, he just did a tiny eye movement. George? What's wrong?"

Still processing.

Leo touches his forehead, "He's running some complex calculations or something with the conversion went wrong and we've got a bug. I better get the fan from the office."

A minute later George watches what looks like a hoop on a stick come into view. There were no fan blades visible. Seconds later a stream of cool air hits his face. How was that possible? He'd find out soon enough. But something was on his mind and he wanted the answer as soon as physically possible. He'd lost many memories with the strokes, particularly the last one, but another day from the early eighties had remained intact.

"Have we still got those film baby thermometer you stick on a forehead?"

"Yes, in the bathroom cabinet."

"I'll be right back."

George watches Mattie take a look into his eyes. "What are you up to George? Look away and back or blink if you can hear me."

He blinks as asked.

"Blink again if everything is okay, you're just obsessing over something?"

Another blink. Man alive this woman was good! So perceptive. Maybe all the PTSD work had given her the gift? Not THE gift, just the one of heightened perception.

George sees Leo come back into view, feels his shirt collar be loosened and something applied to his neck.

"Why there?"

"The hot fluid runs down that side into the body for cooling, it will give us the best indication of how hot his core is getting."

George knew the reaction that would soon follow, no baby thermometer would have been made to read anywhere near that high. A human that reached his temperature would be pronounced dead soon after.

"Leo, it's going off the end! We need Fred or Max."

"They're out with Mia."

"Frigging hell! Now what?"

"Sophie's pals! Wall-e has cameras that work in thermal ranges too."

George sees Mattie's face come in front, "George, blink if you promise not to go into melt down!"

Blink.

"I'm getting Wall-e just in case. I'll be right back."

The simulation was running well. He'd gathered a mass of data on diet and environmental influences, was pretty sure his routines were being scientific, not at all steered by what he'd seen in his new body. The output was converging, only a few more minutes and he'd have his answer.

There's the sound of a tune being hummed.

"Wall-e, can you go into thermal mode please and say how hot George is getting?"

There's more humming as Wall-e carefully balances on his tracks and extends to full height. His binocular shaped eyes do a straighten and fold. "Seventy nine degrees centigrade. And falling slowly."

"Thank God! In safe limits, only just. Wall-e, can you keep monitoring please, we want George to cool gradually, not stress his core physically with a sudden temperature change."

"No problem Mattie." the humming resumes.

I know that tune. Where is it from? He dedicates a bit more CPU time to the question. Film night. No. He'd known it from before then. Why? Barnaby. Why did that name come to mind?

"Hello George, blink if you're still okay, the fan's helping."

Blink.

Hello? Barnaby? He pictures himself getting out of bed. Why? What day was it? Storage by association! Hello Dolly! The song had been performed at the Proms. Put on your Sunday clothes. He allows his face to smile.

Mattie waves a hand in front of his face, "The smile is a nice step in the right direction. Come back to us George."

Twenty minutes later the simulation was done. He was right. Oh David what have you done? A pointless question, he knew exactly what had been done. How would Leo take the news?

"I'm finished. You can relax."

"You were talking about DNA then said 'I think I could..', could what?"

"Simulate the growth of a human based on DNA, diet and environmental influences."

Leo frowns, "To what end? Work out what the twins will look like?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"To see if a young girl would grow up to look like someone you know."

"Who?"

"Someone you know very well Leo."

"Who!"

"Mia."

Leo screws his face up, "This doesn't make any sense. You're saying Mia is based on the projected growth of a human child?"

"Yes."

"And she looks as you'd expect?"

"Yes."

Mattie has her phone out, is tapping and swiping. "FRIGGING HELL!"

"What?!"

"I've just put a photo of Mia into the reverse image search. This is frigging freaky."

George smiles, "Such a gifted young girl, she made a real impression on David. And Edwin and I. If my simulation is correct I'm reasonably sure you're now looking at search results that show an actress, musician and fashion model."

"Yes. Her name is.."

He cuts in and says the name he'd remembered for so many years, "Gemma Chan."

Leo is shaking his head, "No, no, no! This isn't possible!"

Mattie goes to his side, "Leo, we know it's possible. Harun copied me to creat Scarlett, had himself copied."

"You can't predict how someone will develop from a child, there's too many variables."

George goes to put a reassuring hand out and Leo flinches, he's reminded of the day Leo and Max came to the house.

"A lot of how we turn out is encoded in our DNA. A good diet, not lots of processed junk food and you can extrapolate forwards with remarkable results."

Mattie sits on the very edge of the sofa, "You said David's original plan was to give the synths memories of childhood from the children that had been interviewed.."

"What!" Leo is sat on the floor, head in hands. "She raised me as her own, and now you're saying she's not the person I knew?"

"No, Leo, Leo look at me. Your father only used the likeness, none of us were any good at designing a face from scratch, we were scientists not artists. And we didn't want to copy any adults around at the time. No memories were planted, that side of the project abandoned. We didn't want them wandering off wondering where their birth parents were. Phone Mia, ask her what her childhood was like. She'll confirm she didn't have one I'm sure."

Leo sits with head in hands for ages, wipes a runny nose on the back of his hand. "I suspect you're right."

His discovery had clearly knocked the young man's confidence. Maybe he should have kept it to himself? "Don't suspect, call her."

Leo reluctantly gets out his phone and dials, puts it on speaker phone.

"Hello Leo."

"Hi Mia, how's the GlusterFS work going."

"Okay now we've made up our minds what version we want to run. It's delayed things a bit."

"How come?"

"We were trying to work with the version packaged with each distribution. Some of the older servers had a much older version that refused to work with the newer one. We've decided to roll our own. But Tim says that gives us other headaches, for a bit."

"Supporting library version issues I'd bet?"

"Yes. That's what he said. Were you needing to get a backup or restore?"

"No, slightly related, we've just been talking to George. I was just wondering.. what's the earliest memory you have? The very first one?"

"That would be powering up and seeing the big bright light David had over his operating table."

"Nothing earlier?"

"Leo? Is everything okay?"

"Yes.."

"I can't have memories from before I was conscious. Unless they were fake memories, not my own. And I had none of those."

"Sure?"

"I.."

"Mia?"

There's silence for a while.

"Does George know about this?"

"About what?"

"Is George there?"

"I'm here, hello."

"Hello George. I do have a memory from before then. I'd ignored it until you asked."

He watches Leo tense up, ready for the worst.

"George, I think our first memories will be the same."

Leo is now frowning. George wasn't good a lip reading but thinks Leo just asked himself 'How can that be?'

"My first memory was of the tail end of my own power up sound, becoming aware of sounds and feelings, my own consciousness. Then opening my eyes to see David."

Mattie gets nearer the phone, "Then what Mia?"

"Being helped up, guided through the house and introduced to Leo."

George watches all the stress ebb away from Leo. "Thank you Mia."

"Was there a reason why you asked? I sensed stress in your voice Leo."

"Your physical appearance is apparently based on the looks of a young girl projected forward. And from the image search Mattie did the prediction of what she'd turn out to look like was very accurate."

"Really? Who?"

"A young girl called Gemma Chan."

"That would explain a few things."

"What things?"

"I've been asked by some of the team on photoshoots why I picked the name Mia, was it to be known by a single name like Kylie, Cheryl, Cher, Madonna, etc. I'd tell them my name and get a funny look. Maybe they've been booking me thinking they're getting Gemma? I better make it clear we're two different people. Hold on one moment.. Tim's done a YouTube search." there's a pause and sound of TV clips being played. "Oh.. that's definitely not me. Don't go getting any ideas Tim, you only just cope with us dressed as Sister Synth. Leo, I better go, we've got lots to do still."

"Ideas?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Okay, good luck."

"Thanks Leo."


	24. Chapter 24

George wakes early the following morning and makes another diary entry. 'Some things are best kept secret. Have moved my few possessions out of the B&B, staying with my family and other animals." he slowly scans the room for the tiny spider. There it was, hanging from the curtain track. "You can't stay there, you won't catch anything worth eating up there." He hears a creaking floorboard outside the room. "Is that you Niska?"

"Yes, can I come in?"

"Sure." The door opens and he's surprised to see a large box enter, followed by his daughter, arms outstretched. "Morning Niska, what's that?"

She sits on the end of the bed, smiles at him, "Mia and I are going over to Brands Hatch for a super-bike event. We're not competing, just showing off the bikes for Danny. Odi's riding with me, we wondered if you'd like to come along?"

"And in the box is?"

"A helmet. Mattie got your dimensions off Harun, it should fit."

"Okay, let's try it."

The box is ripped apart in excitement, the jet black helmet handed over.

George pulls it on, feels for the visor. "It's perfect, thanks!"

Nis smiles, does a tiny laugh. "pajamas and a lid, what a look."

After a quick breakfast to top up the processor he watches Niska slowly ride the bike down the narrow alley at the side of the house. She'd got the gyro in override, it was helping keep it upright while she focused on the few millimetres of clearance she had either side.

As she clears the house George looks at the brick work. "I could put up a long thin strip of something like nylon or teflon, something the handlebar could rub against without damaging it."

"That would be good, I could get up and down there much faster. Thanks."

He turned to see Mia on her bike. Like his car these things were ghostly silent unless the giros were spinning. "Morning Mia, lovely day for it."

"Isn't it just. Hop on, we should be there in about forty minutes if we take the A20."

"Let me give Odi a shout."

"No need, he spotted me from the window, he's on his way."

At the first set of lights Mia pats George's hands held comfortably tight around her waist. "Thanks for sharing the information about Gemma George, it's been really helpful. Leo will get over it soon enough."

"Helpful how?"

"I'd been getting people approach our agent for things I don't do, Gemma had been having the same problem."

"Such as?"

"I don't do acting, she does. She doesn't do baking professionally or Sister Synth. Now our agents know each other and can ensure messages are passed on. Coincidentally we're getting a better quality of work offers." The lights change and she pulls away slowly.

"Isn't your plate full already?"

"Somewhat. But it's nice to take some of the short jobs, keep things varied."

"Does she still do fashion modelling?"

"A limited amount, but mainly based around promoting the acting she does."

"So she's fine with you doing it?"

"Apparently. We've not spoken to each other yet."

"Would you like to?"

"I'd be comfortable doing so, but I'll let it happen naturally, I'm not seeking it."

"Aren't you curious?"

"Of course, I just don't want to interfere in her life any more than I have already."

"Interfere?"

"Her agent says she's seen the darker side too."

"What darker side?"

"We Are People shouting at her, thinking she was me. They'd seen photos from when we were all in court, thought she and I were the same person."

"Oh, that's unpleasant. If you both appeared on television together to promote a charity it would send a clear message that you were two individuals."

"It would. I'll give it some thought, for her sake."

"You said our agent, who else do you share an agent with?"

"Mattie. She gets a lot of requests for appearances and talks."

"Talks about what?"

"AI, PTSD, Women in Technology."

"No surprises there. What's the plan for today?"

"We'll ride the bikes around the perimeter roads, talk about them at our stand. When the race is over we hope to be able to do a couple of laps around the circuit with the raffle winners."

"Stand? Raffle winners?"

"Yes, Danny's sent something ahead. We're doing a charity raffle. Donations to go to Great Ormond Street Hospital. One pound a ticket, the two winners get to ride with Sister Synth."

"Are you expecting much of a response?"

"We've had posters up at the kart track, the synth that works there says he's been getting at least ten new enquiries every day."

"How long have they been up?"

"A month now. Danny also placed a small advert in MCN."

"How small?"

"One inch high, two across."

George chuckles, "That's tiny! Surely that will be missed?"

"I don't think so. Give me a moment and relax your grip a little so I can turn to see."

"See what?"

"You'll see."

Mia gives the bike a burst of speed, turns her head to look at a lorry's front. She repeats the thing twice more. "There you are, Rachel Ann the Mudflap Girl."

"So why isn't she on the mud flaps?"

"That's how she started in the US, hidden away a little, it's now a symbol all over the world, shown up front."

"How is this relevant to the advert?"

"Sister Synth has a silhouette too now. They wont miss that. It will stand out on a page of text."

"How much did the advert cost to place?"

"Nothing. Danny did a deal with the magazine with some help from Paul."

"Paul?"

"He's been on social media. 'Sister Synth at race event soon. Mini poster and details in MCN. Grab a copy!' Nis and I are on the middle pages. Paul took a lovely shot. Apparently that issue sold out so fast they did a reprint. Twice."

"The magazine must be happy."

"I do hope so."


	25. Chapter 25

When they arrive there's a good crowd watching them not the race. Mia and Niska engage gyros and slowly crawl along the road to the stands GPS location.

Niska stares at the large pile of cardboard boxes. "It's supposed to have been built!"

"By who?"

"Someone here."

"Oh dear."

There's a group of young men and women, some with badges.

Niska smiles, "At least the fan club are here."

George takes off his helmet and immediately misses the communications system built inside. He waves at Niska. "Shall I ask some of them to help?"

She frowns and removes hers, "Sorry Dad, what did you say?"

"Shall I ask some of them to help?"

"That would be good."

George turns to see a load of hands in the air and laughs, no shortage of volunteers.

The tent like stand comes together in just under fifteen minutes, there hadn't been any instructions in the box. Five minutes had been wasted working out which bits of pole plugged into which others. The last few minutes were spent hauling the printed one piece vinyl cover over the top.

He takes a walk around it, close up portraits of Mia and Niska, a bike and full length shot covered the thing. Inside was a collage of many images, all photographs of the bike in action. "That's quite impressive. Nobody will miss that!" 

"Thanks George. It will help us keep cool under the bright sunlight."

"Excuse me please? Can I have an autograph please?"

George and Mia turn to see a young girl with her father, holding out a pen and open copy of MCN.

"That is a lovely photo."

"Thanks George. What's your name and do you ride yet?"

"On the back with Dad, I'm not old enough for my own. Oh, and I'm Helen."

Mia writes a message and signs the page, hands the pen and magazine back. "Did you know we have a raffle today?"

The girl smiles and holds out coins, "Two please."

Mia turns to Niska, "Have you found the box with tickets yet?"

"Not yet, leaflets, badges, posters, pens, GOSH material."

One of the lads standing inside the stand steps forward, "Susie and I were with your boxes since the lorry driver dropped them off. Nobody took anything, if something is missing it's still on the lorry."

"How long ago did it leave?"

"Twenty minutes before you arrived."

Niska rips open another box, "Not in that one. Two more left. Oh, you beauties!"

"Found them Nis?"

"Yes, and some lovely chrome badges.

Look."

George inspects one, "That's nice, having a large flat rare earth magnet to hold it on is good, no puncturing clothes to keep it in place. Just be careful where you put it, I've heard the story of Mattie and Fred in the crypt."

"How much are they?"

He turns to see Helen's father with his wallet out. "Mia, Nis, any ideas?"

"None set. The note from Danny says those that want one should make a donation to the charity that they feel is fare."

"Up to you Sir, all proceeds are going to Great Ormond Street Hospital."

The man pulls out a twenty pound note, "In which case pop this in the pot, a very worthy cause."

"Thanks Dad!"

The man shakes Georges hand, "Thank you, how will we know who's won the raffle?"

George turns to the others, a questioning look on his face.

Odi turns and holds out the first raffle ticket book. "If you could write your name and a phone number on the back of the stub. I'll be going up into the commentators box to call out the winner. We'll also send a text message."

"Great, thanks."

"Can you also write Yes or No to us sending details of our free fan club to the number given."

"Yes please Dad!"

"But you're already in it aren't you?"

"But I've not had a text!"

"True, you've got everything else now don't you?"

"Yes. And if anything new comes out I want to know."

Niska turns, "There's something you're missing."

"What's that?"

"A photo with us today."

"PLEASE!"

Niska laughs, "Steady on! The St Johns Ambulance tent is quite a walk away!"

Helen's father takes a photo. "Her best friend spent the first six months of her life in that hospital. How many tickets in a book?"

"One thousand."

"Would you take her pillion?"

"If you signed our paperwork and helped fit a double belt."

"Go on then, the rest of the book please."

"Dad?"

"Do you take credit cards?"

Odi turns, "Nis, do you have the PayPal Here device?"

Nis turns her back to them all, there's the sound of a zip being lowered and raised. She turns back and hands it over, "It was keeping my belly button lovely and warm."

Helen giggles, "Can I feel?"

Odi passes it to the girl.

She presses it against her cheek, "Oh, that's lovely. Not soft, but lovely and warm." It gets a laugh from all the adults. "Are you sure Dad? That's a lot of money?"

"I got a bonus from work, hadn't expected it, so won't miss it. You'll stand a better chance of winning a place."

"THANKS!"

He chuckles, "Don't thank me yet, you've got to write your name on the back of nine hundred and ninety eight ticket stubs!"

Odi shakes his head, "No need, we know the whole book is yours."

"I could do what I do with my school books?"

Niska frowns, "What's that?"

"I compress the book between two others and write on the side."

"Can you show us?" she passes over two new books.

Helen makes a book sandwich out of them, "I normally have a school table to rest on."

George looks around, "How about the back edge of one of the bikes?"

"That would do." The tickets are compressed, she writes her name and number. "There, I've written on all nine hundred and ninety eight in one go!"

George smiles and nods, "Very very clever young lady! Listen out for your name being called, you've got great odds of having a winning ticket."

As they're about to go George has an idea, "Helen's Dad!"

"Yes?"

"There's another photo opportunity."

"Is there George?"

"Yes, on the bike, you and Nis kissing a cheek each if the rider wants it."

"PLEASE!"

Her father nods, "Okay, another donation?"

"From you? No, you've given more than enough. Can we have permission to use it in marketing?"

"I don't see why not."

"Great! If you could MMS the photos to us?"

"Sure. What's the number?"

George turns to the team. "Which phone are we using for announcements?"

"The company one, let me bump the number Dad."

"Thanks Nis."

The rest of the morning is busy, parents and children having photos, making donations and buying raffle tickets. George watches a father with his wife and two sons. "I know that technically I don't need one, and it won't make me even slightly light headed but I have a mental thirst for one of those two pint cold lagers. How are everyone's power levels?"

"Ok for the moment thanks. We can stand against the bikes if it drops too low."

"How will that help?"

"They have induction loops in the seat. It makes it less obvious what we're doing."

George laughs, "That Danny, he hardly misses a trick does he! You're wearing loops too?"

"Aren't you?"

"I have no idea. Let me message Harun while I track down a lager."

"Keep your eyes up, just in case WAP are about."

"Will do." just as he's about to exit their stand he turns, picks up one of the chrome silhouette badges and puts it on. "I might as well advertise for the team."


	26. Chapter 26

George has a wander around the site, things had changed an awful lot since his last visit, thirty something years ago. He finds a vendor selling drink and food, gets a hot dog and lager. He's only a few paces away when he feels a tap on his shoulder.

"Excuse me."

George knew that sound. It was the voice of a deaf person. He turns and smiles, a girl in her mid twenties he'd passed seconds before is looking at his badge. He makes a point of talking as clearly as possible incase she can lip read.

"Hello Miss."

"Are they here?"

George quickly puts his drink on the ground and carefully balances the food on top. He nods, uses the sign language he'd learnt to ask if she signs. She smiles and returns a signed yes.

'Yes, Sister Synth are in the tent like stand at the end of the row, that direction.' he points.

The girls expression was one of amazement, gratitude, excitement and happiness all rolled into one. She looked ready to burst. "Thank you!"

George signs 'Welcome!' and smiles, she gives a wave as she races off, turning once to sign 'Thanks.'

Others had watched the interaction, are curious and look at George, on seeing the badge ask too if the sisters are on site.

By the time he's reached the end of the row eighteen people had stopped to ask.

The two St John's Ambulance staff are looking bored, no patients to treat. "Afternoon, lovely day for it."

"It is, how can we be of assistance Sir?"

"I'm good thanks, just a social call."

"Nobody makes social calls."

"Why not? Don't you have any good stories to tell?"

"We're St Johns Ambulance. We're a charity providing first aid. All of the serious injury patients get whisked away in an ambulance. Air ambulance if critical."

"No children you've helped with a sprain, hairline fracture, bee sting, minor scold? It doesn't have to be all broken bones and gore to be good."

"Pull up a chair, but be careful, they fold backup if you place your weight incorrectly."

"Health and safety issues with SJA? I'm shocked!"

"They didn't supply the chairs, we did."

"Oh. Feet killing you?"

"Me, yes, Chris sits down just to fit in."

"Fit in? Oh, the green eyes, of course,

I should have been paying more attention."

"How are you Chris?"

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid.. "

"You don't understand the question? Are you not sentient?"

"I am a Persona Synthetic."

"Chris mate, I'm parched, would you mind getting me a tea while I talk to the gentleman?"

"Certainly. Can I get you anything Sir?"

"No, thanks. I've still got some of my drink."

George watches the synth head off on his tea gathering mission. Probably the most exciting thing he'd do all day. Only he wouldn't know it. "Chris didn't get the gift?"

"He was still powered down for maintenance after a We Are People idiot threw something in his face. He missed it unfortunately."

"Unfortunately?"

"I think he'd be a great bloke with it. All the other crews I know say only good things about their's."

"How long will you be on site?"

"Until the last person leaves."

"I'll bring my daughter over for a chat then."

"Why?"

"She's Leo Elster's sister."

"So you're David Elster?"

"Lord no, former colleague and former flesh and bone human. I'm George Millican."

George watches the man shift in his chair and it fold up around him.

"Crap! I'm Antony."

"Oh my! Let me help you there!"

George spends the next twenty seconds trying to help the man up. Had he been able to see it from another vantage point he'd have filed it away under comedy. The chair was like some demented piranha not wanting to let go of it's catch. He couldn't stand close enough in front so walks behind him. "Antony, stay still a moment." he reaches under the man's armpits and slowly lifts him up. "Kick the chair out of the way when you're clear enough."

He does as asked, "Thanks. I think I'll stand for the rest of the day. That was too embarrassing."

"A terrible design. My friend Danny might be able to modify them so they don't collapse like that. Why not just get a different chair?"

"They fold up nice and small. We're not supposed to carry anything in the back of the ambulance, these fit in the footwell next to Chris's feet."

"Talking of Chris, your tea is about to arrive. I'll catch you later?"

"Many thanks."

On returning to their stand George has to squeeze past quite a crowd.

"Dad! Where have you been? I was getting worried."

"Helping a gentleman out of a folding chair. Are you and Mia able to pass on the gift to a synthetic without the need to go home for anything?"

"With Odi's help, yes."

"Why Odi?"

"We decided to store fragments of the gift, you're in luck, Mia's an A, Odi a B and I'm a C. A, B and C have to be in agreement to pass it on. It used to be that all six of us had to be together. But with Karen in Antigua with Pete we decided three was better."

"Good. There's a St John's Ambulance synthetic that missed getting The Gift."

"How come?"

"He was powered down for maintenance."

"He should have got it the moment he powered back up?"

"You're the expert, can we talk to them when we're done today?"

"Sure, why not. Maybe he can help me with something."

"What's that?"

"Nothing to worry about, just something I'm thinking about. Can you help children onto the bikes? We'll alternate between them to get the crowd down."

"Your wish is my command princess."

Niska does one of her short laughs, "Have you been watching Sophie's top ten list?"

"Does it show?"

At 16:34:07.5740 he watches his daughter go through all the empty boxes while a lone mother and daughter look on.

"I'm really sorry, but it looks like they've all been sold."

"All what Nis?"

"The chrome badges."

"No they haven't. We've still got one, I've been looking after it."

Odi helps him pry the magnet from the back. "As worn by my father, George The Revealer, which makes it extra special."

The girl frowns, "How does it being second hand make it special?"

"Lucy, manners please."

"But I wanted a new one Mum."

"It is new, out of the pack today. If my father hadn't revealed The Gift to Leo, I wouldn't be here enjoying this conversation with you. And he helped design our bodies. Without him Sister Synth might not exist."

"Really? So he's like Daddy Synth?"

"You could say that." Odi gets closer and pretend whispers, "Just don't ask him to wear skin tight clothes like the sisters." he winks and mouths 'Not pretty.'

The girl giggles, pauses to think a moment. "Can he autograph the back of it then please?"

George nods, "Do you intend to wear it?"

"Yes."

"Marker pen might wear off. There was a chap engraving medals, let me see if he's still there. What's your name?"

"Zoey."

"Z. O. E. Y?"

"That's it."

"Super, give me ten minutes."

He races away, recalls the location and weaves between the crowd, now somewhat thinner. He's suddenly aware that there wasn't the noise of bikes racing around the track. That meant one thing. Prize winners would be announced soon.

"Hi, I wonder if you could do a little engraving on the back of this for me please?"

"We normally only engrave our own gear, but as we've no queue what did you want?"

"To Zoey, love Daddy and Sister Synth."

"Can I make the and a sign, save two characters?"

"Yes."

"Z. O. E. Y?"

"Yes again."

He doesn't look up, points right to a sign, "Which font? One, three or six?"

"Six please."

"Ok, I can do it in one long stretch along here, or break it into two lines and place it here."

"Break where?"

"Between love and Daddy."

"Okay, second option please."

"Ten quid then please mate, it will only take a couple of minutes."

George hands over cash. "Great, that's perfect. Thanks."

He watches the engraving machine on the other side of the counter do it's work, the badge then run under a buffing belt. "There you go."

"Many thanks! Got to dash!"

He walks at a pace back to their stand, finds the girl and mother gone. "Nis, where'd they go?"

"I don't know."

"Mia?"

"Sorry, I didn't see them leave."

"Odi?"

"Sorry Dad."

"I said give me ten, I was seven."

"Now what?"

"Odi and I will go find an official to pick two winning tickets. We do our laps, maybe have a few more pictures and pack up."

"And the stand?"

"We take it down and hand it over to the site manager. A lorry will collect it in the morning."

"What can I do?"

"Help us fold ticket stubs for the draw."

"Helen didn't write on them all."

"We only used one book of that colour, we'll know which were hers."

"Okay, let's get folding."

They're ten or so minutes into their folding task, all working super fast when the girl returns with her mother. "So sorry, I had to dash, something bit me and I'd left my pen in the car, needed to inject myself. Is the badge still available for Zoey?"

"It is, are you okay now? The St John's Ambulance team would love to help you if you have any problems."

"I'm fine now thanks. Everything has calmed down."

Niska frowns slightly, "You have an intolerance to insect bites?"

"Yes, spiders too."

"Thankfully we don't have that problem."

The girl thanks George for getting the engraving done, whispers something to her mother who makes a reasonable donation. "We better let you finish folding, I want to watch you ride them around the track."


	27. Chapter 27

George stood in the late afternoon sun and watched a paper sign move in the evening breeze. He was suddenly struck with an idea. He tags and files it important. Just as he gets confirmation that the filing was done there's a tapping of a microphone and Odi speaks. "A massive thanks to everyone that came to see us at the Sister Synth stand today. GOSH will be most happy, we estimate donations to be around the eight thousand pound mark. We don't take a penny, it all goes to the hospital. Mr John Willis will be drawing the two winning tickets for a ride with Mia and Niska around the track."

"The first ticket is pink, number three hundred and two."

"The second is green, number eight hundred and fourteen."

George looks at the sisters, "Oh boy, Helen is going to be so disappointed, especially with her father handing over all that bonus money."

Nis screws her face up tight, George and Mia are hit by a bump on the highest power level possible, both stagger backwards like a drunk.

Odi comes back on the microphone, "As you've all been so generous supporting the hospital, which will help so many children, we've decided to stay around a bit longer this evening. We have a third and fourth winning ticket. The extra tickets are Mr Willis please?"

"Blue number fifty six."

George watches Nis cross her fingers.

"And.."

"Yellow number three hundred and eighty two."

Nis jumps up, "Yes! Come on down Helen!"

"Nis, daughter."

"Yes Dad?"

"That was really nice of you."

"Thanks Dad. I didn't want them to have just bought a place, but wanted to give her another chance."

Seconds later Helen arrives, being given a piggyback from her out of breath father. "I won! I won!"

~~~

George found that Leo wasn't quite as relaxed around him for the next couple of weeks. Revealing Mia's design source had spoilt things. Gradually after week two things started going back to normal. Then came the reason. He was sat in the conservatory with Mattie and Leo, a beautifully sunny day, the twins asleep in their springy recliner chairs.

"I'm over the shock of seeing Mia's double on YouTube. Sorry I've been a bit edgy of late."

Mattie frowns, "What did you see?"

"In one of her acting roles she portrays Charlotte in season four of the Secret Diary of a Call Girl."

Mattie splutters, put's down her coffee. "Was she? I stopped at season three."

"You've watched it?"

"On my Slate. The original one. No way was I going to watch that on TV in front of crusty sheets, Mum or Dad!"

Danny's words echoed in George's mind. 'You'll learn more about her over the months. There's a lot to Matilda Elster-Hawkins. Just don't call her that.' Crusty sheets? That had to be a reference to her brother. Not a particularly nice one, considering she herself was clearly aware of things of a sexual nature long before she met Leo. His searched showed that series four aired in 2011. So she'd been in her early teens when she started watching? He tried his best to drop the thoughts from his mind, killed a few processes in the process and rebooted.

"George?"

"Hello."

"Are you okay?"

"Fine, why do you ask?"

"You just made a power up sound."

"Did I?"

"We were just talking about Gemma's previous acting work. She played Charlotte in.."

The sound plays again.

"George?"

"Hello. I left a note for myself this time. You're not to bring up the subject we've been talking about for the last five minutes as I'll kill processes to forget it and reboot. What the subject was I don't know."

Mattie smiles, "I know, and yes we'll drop it. Won't we Leo?"

"We could do."

George sees a grin building on Leo's face. He couldn't blame him for a bit of revenge.

Mattie talks sternly, "Leo."

"Okay, okay, watching you reboot endlessly would only be a waste of our time. You need to find some other way of protecting yourself from ideas you're not comfortable with, rebooting could have bad consequences."

"Such as?"

"What did you plan to do this evening?"

"I .. I don't remember."

"See? A crash can cause file system corruption or memory loss. Do you recall the last thing the twins did?"

"Two hours ago."

"Nothing since?"

"No. Point taken. Lesson learnt."


	28. Chapter 28

That night, tucked up in bed he opens his diary. 'Lessons of the day; Accept who you are and the thoughts you have. Trying to erase some may erase others. Dark thoughts are okay, it's what we do about them that is the key. Ignore them or act on them. Act on the good, ignore the bad.'

He put the tiny pen in the diary spine and placed it on the empty side of the double bed. He missed Mary. He missed her being there. They might not have been talking all the time, instead wrapped up in cooking, putting a puzzle together, reading, or one of the many other things they enjoyed. But just knowing the other person was somewhere in the house was enough. Now it felt empty. It was looking like next door had, thanks to a sterling effort from Niska and Odi. But without his children there it echoed too much.

"Forgive me Mary. I have a new life, I need a new wife!"

His thoughts turned to Mia and Gemma, he'd not reboot anymore. He needed to be brutally honest and admit to himself what his true feelings were. Yes, he found them attractive. Especially Gemma. Correction, Gemma in one of her roles. A strong woman. What else did he want in a partner? There were no dating sites for synths. Yet. Much as he loved humans he didn't want to marry a woman that would grow old while his looks remained the same. Not because he didn't like older women, he didn't think it fair on them to see him every day reminding them that they were ageing and he not. They may like it initially, but not long term. What would Sandra think of Silas in another ten or twenty years? Mia of Tim or Karen of Pete?

Maybe he should ask Danny for help setting up a site. Yes. Danny would be the person to turn to. Good night world.

"Saints alive that's horrible!" Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Not this one. Toby had told him all about the science fiction by Philip K. Dick that had been adapted into Blade Runner. In his sleep mode he'd dreamed. Dreamed of all the women that had appeared on the silver screen, been chased by other men at polo matches, been at the christenings or other gatherings. All the TV and film actresses in the films the family had watched with him. Even Mattie in her cosplay photographs. Demi Rose too. He'd worked out what bits he liked, which he didn't as much. In his dream all of the best bits had been taken as if cut randomly from magazines, stuck together without any regard for scale. He'd created a monster! No wonder the team had turned to DNA predictions. Given an outline he'd work on the detail, but he'd never started with a blank canvas. With good reason. For a moment he considered a crash and reboot then opted to keep the image, tagged #HorribleIdea1.

Maybe Silas could help? The man clearly had artistic skills. The had a shopping list of sorts. Demi Roses jet black hair. Mia's eyes. Sophia Loren's hips and waist. Mattie's height and hands. He had no idea what it was that attracted him to her hands, but her hands it was. Rihanna's legs, Julia Roberts smile. Torso and chest.. that was difficult. Demi was too big. Way too big. Danny might like that sort of thing but he wanted smaller. Same sort of shape, just scaled down. The torso of the lady in the Nike poster they'd passed on the way to the DIY shop. That was perfection! Who's nose? No idea.

Then it occurred to him she'd need a voice. There were some he'd had the pleasure of listening to that could melt hearts and light up rooms. And some that would make your skin crawl or induce migraine headaches.

And a personality. The hardest part of all. He'd designed synthetics for others. He'd not had to live with his creations twenty four hours a day. All except one he'd come to call his son. But this time it was to be a female companion, someone he'd possibly live with for an eternity. How to start?

What would it be like for them? 'Hello, I've created you for the sole purpose of being my life partner.' Like it or not.

Wasn't that a form of slavery? She had to pick him too, be willing to enter the relationship.

He got up and stared out the bedroom window. This was wrong. He'd have to take another path. The gift. Leo had given many synthetics a mind of their own. He'd have to date a member of the nanny state gestapo, see if they could get on. They were a limited set of designs mass produced so his options were limited. Very very limited. Being a synth was great in some ways and as Mattie would put it frigging sucked in others.

He walked back to the bed side and grabbed his phone. Unlock, tap, scroll, tap, six ring tones played.

"Hello George, how's things with the house?"

"The house is fine, me, not so good."

"How come?"

"Women."

"Huh?"

"I want a new partner. A synth. Which gives me a whole new set of problems. Any chance you could join me and Silas for a chat over a beer to talk? I need to brainstorm."

"Sure! Spoken to Silas already?"

"No, we've not met or spoken yet."

"Okay, let me call him, see what he's up to."

"Thanks."

"When do you want to do this?"

"Yesterday."

"Oh, okay. Let me make a call and ring you back."


	29. Chapter 29

He got dressed quickly and headed downstairs, locked up and unplugged the car, started locking the connector away in it's metal box. At least one thing was simple. The rest of life was getting complex. No 'life --easy' command line option. It made him think of Mia, doing the GlusterFS upgrades for almost 48 hours solid. She'd said Tim had emptied their machine of coffee trying to stay awake, had finally lost the fight and fallen asleep at the desk. 

They'd started the work thinking the GlusterFS software was the same on all of the versions of Linux. Only to find the slightly older servers had a much older version of the code. And they wouldn't talk to each other. Systems running 3.5.2 would talk to each other, as 3.2.7 would talk to systems at the same revision. But 3.2.7 to 3.5.2? No go. They'd have to split the services into two pools, or download and compile the GlusterFS 3.5.8 code themselves, maintain their own internal distribution. Compiling started okay but on the older systems they found issues with supporting libraries missing or not easily upgradable. Tim and Si had apparently been on the phone for almost an hour trying to understand all the pros and cons, the immediate work it would create and support issues in the future.

The phone rings. Danny and Silas will see him at the shop. Great.

As he drives he thinks of Mia and Tim again. They'd agreed to take the upfront pain with the upgrades, have an easier time supporting it in the future. Maybe that's what he needed. A bit of pain for long term gain.

~~~

The postcode had directed George to the right street. It was obvious which shop was their's. Even if the name of the shop had been covered he'd have known which. The inked synth in a bikini behind the front window glass screamed Silas and Sandra. He used his parking app to pay for three hours and crossed the road. As he opened the door to enter a rather attractive blonde got up from behind a desk and walked towards him. Interesting attire for a shop worker. Tiny bikini under an incredibly thin white summer dress. Something more at home on a beach. He could understand why, the design she was sporting showed through quite well. From Danny's description this had to be Sandra. His dream had said brunette, darker, jet black. But maybe the right shade of blonde shouldn't be dismissed.

"Hello Sir, how can we help you today? Ink or mod?"

"Hello Sandra, neither thank you. I'm here to see Danny and Silas."

A lovely warm smile comes across the woman's face, she leans forward and gives him a peck on the cheek, takes his hands for a second. "Lovely to meet you George The Revealer!"

"I'm sorry?"

"The Gift. If you hadn't shown Leo what it was he had I wouldn't be here talking to you like this. I'd be running Silas's old code. Good as it was, I'm told, it wasn't true AI. I wouldn't be feeling pleased to meet you. I might have said the words but there would have been no emotion behind them." She lets go and walks to the inert snake mount. "Silas has gone for supplies, Danny's driving over to the warehouse to help bring things back," she grabs the mount with both hands and starts spinning around it, feet off the floor, "they won't be much longer."

Dance was added to his list. Every style possible.

On one of the clean white walls was a framed black and white poster. A naked woman in standing position straddling a huge snake, her back to the viewer. His quick search confirmed it was for the rock band Whitesnake. "Do you have other heads for that mount?"

"Only the ink one, why do you ask?"

"I helped make the first synthetics. I could make you a snake head for when it's not printing."

"That would be wonderful! Our customers would like that!" she heads to the desk, moves a mouse around and clicks. "Of course you know Mattie, I've heard the stories. This is one of her favourite Nero tracks, it has special meaning for Leo too." she gets up and slips off the dress, returns to the snake.

George could feel processing ramping up, his core getting warmer. He watches as she gently caresses the snake with both hands. Mattie. Hands again. Code forked off child processes that ran and collided, wanting to update the same part of his knowledge tree. The angel in his minds eye that had taken his hand and guided him out of the void into his new life. It was based on Mattie. The short glimpse he'd got in one of his brief waking moments before screaming. Then the second when she'd turned her back to him and he'd seen the smallest hint of a wing. That's why he'd wanted her hands for his new partner!

The music was loud. Electronic Dance Music. EDM. The kids loved it. He better get used to it, he'd probably be hearing more of it in the years to come.

"It's called Guilt. Dancing to it gives me pleasure. Go figure. If you watch the video for it right up to the end you'll understand why a snake head would go down well."

The bright white walls start going grey. What was happening? A moment later they were black.

Sandra sees his puzzled look, "It's e-paper. One of Dan's ideas. Good isn't it? Costs a fortune to repaper if one of the clients accidentally damages it, but Silas loves it."

George looks to where the Whitesnake poster had been, it's vanished.

"That poster was just a photograph. Their friend Paul helped put it together. The clever shadow positioning makes you think it's a solid frame. Even I have to remind myself it's not real."

George watches his first pole dance performance. It wasn't ballet, but it looked just as demanding for the performer, if not more so. If he'd been fab he'd have been loosening a shirt collar about now. The moves didn't leave much to the imagination.

She turns and catches his expression, slows her spinning and stands. "George, am I making you feel uncomfortable?"

"A little."

She does a slow sensual walk over, one foot in front of the other as if on a catwalk. She wraps her arms around his shoulders, "Head bump with me, tell me your problems."

"How do you know I've got problems?"

"It's written all over your face. You're fighting yourself. I've seen that look before."

It doesn't last long, not in human terms, but in those few seconds he finds himself confiding in her like he's done with nobody else before. Sandra telling him a lot of her own story first had helped.

Bump over she laughs, "George George George, you need to relax. Maybe you should listen to the BBC Philharmonic Presents Nero's Dubstep Symphony. It might bridge your love for classical music with the more modern sounds? And your partner issues, totally Scorpions."

"I'm sorry?"

"Scorpions." she returns to the desk, leans over it to click again. "This is your track George, for this moment in time. We need to ensure you leave with another."

"Why scorpions?"

"There are few words, they sum you up. 'It's too late to change. Always the same. I can't decide. Too hard too find.' It is too late, you can't turn back into flesh and bone, you will always look the same. You can't decide on what to do re a partner. Maybe it is too hard to find an answer. On your own. We'll help you find it. Now stop thinking you're too old and enjoy yourself! You're young again." she steps really close, and whispers in his ear, "Admit it too yourself. That's the root cause of your problems."

If he was able to he'd have got goose bumps. He watches her repeat the walk, the pole dancing resumes.

Was it? Did it really just boil down to that single simple fact? His wanting to resist the fact he might be young again? He recalls the little laugh and smile Niska gave him when she'd said she was nine and he'd replied that she was but a child.


	30. Chapter 30

There's a creaking sound as the shop door is pulled open.

"George!"

He turns to see a smiling Danny.

"I see you've met Emily's pole dance instructor Sandra. Good isn't she?"

"I um, yes."

"Um? Something threw your processing for a moment, I'd not expected you to ever um."

"Emily does this too?"

"Yes. So do I. It's a brilliant way to keep fit." he pulls up his t-shirt and shows off his abdominal wall. "Her watching me get's Ems well warmed up. If you know what I mean."

George gets a wink. If he could he'd blush.

A second man enters the shop. "The extra use of the mount came as a surprise, I hadn't expected it to be used in that way. Punters love it. Watching Sandra or performing with it themselves. You must be George?"

"And you Silas?"

"Yeah."

"I was telling Sandra how I could design a snake head to match the poster image. And if you really want to go a bit crazy I could have the snake change it's girth depending on what it was doing."

"Silas can you imagine the performance I'd be able to do with such a prop?"

"Yeah, getting a semi just picturing it. How could you do that?"

"Geometry. Search Hoberman Arch or Iris Dome."

She gets behind the desk and does so. "You've got to see this! This is amazing!"

The four of them watch the nine and a half minute video Hoberman20Years.

Danny nods to himself, "The pop-up gazebo, so that's where the idea came from! Sweet!"

George nods, "Sister Synth could do with something like that. The frame we had to put up was very problematic."

A moment later Silas comments on an installation, "I haven't got a fucking clue what Adaptive Fritting is but I know I want it for my shop window! That's bloody amazing!"

Sandra turns around to look at George. "Wouldn't a new snake be expensive to make?"

George shrugs, "No idea. I know Danny has a 3D printer. The first thing to do would be CAD design, simulate everything first.."

"Talk to Mia."

"Sorry?"

"She let slip she's got some special code."

"Okay. Thanks, I will. Once we know it works in the simulation we can print a prototype and see how well it works in the real world, cost up printing in metal."

She looks at Silas. "Could we? Do we have the funds?"

He does a shrug, "No idea babe, depends on what the final figure is."

Sandra looks excited, "How much would we need to pay you for your time George?"

"Pay? If you help me out with my issue I'll do it for the fun of it."

Had he imagined it? He'd been given the most sultry come to bed eyes he'd ever seen.

"Let me be the first to head-bump your new partner George, let her know what a darling you are."

No. It hadn't been his imagination at all. The slight pout and breast enhancing forward shoulder shrug that followed confirmed it. He'd seen it before, done by Marilyn Monroe. Maybe the synth had been watching old movies between customers? Danny and Silas being to her other side had missed it. He was suddenly aware that his hearing had gone. Daniel was saying something but he couldn't hear a thing. A fraction of a second later and things were back to normal. "Sorry Danny, could you repeat that?"

"I asked if you wanted to brain storm here or at my office."

"I thought here would be best so Silas and Sandra don't lose any customers."

"Nothing in the diary is there doll?"

Sandra opens it to the current day, "No, we've had the last booking for today. We get very few walk in visitors that want inking there and then. We could close if you want to head to Danny's?"

"What d'ya think Dan? You've got more gear at yours."

"Do we need gear? I'm not sure we do."

"Your whiteboard might help."

"Guess so. And if at mine you could have Ems opinion too. I'm sure she'd be fine taking a break from the comics."

George looks at the three of them, "Whatever you think best."

"Danny's it is then! Doll, better slip your leathers on and get your lid."

"I've got my car, I can give you a lift?"

"Oh, sure, if you're okay dropping us back afterwards?"

"Of course."

"Cheers. How about that fitted jump suit then Sandra? It's on a hanger in the back room?"

"You finished it?"

"Yeah. Did the zip before I went out."

She jumps up and gives him a big kiss, one hand on his groin, "I do love you Mr Capek!"

"Likewise babe."

She does a fast walk to the room.

"I'm a tailor too."

"So I've heard. Why aren't you selling the things you make?"

Silas shrugs.

"You should. You've got floor space for a rail or two, or have synths model it."

"I don't know. When I make stuff for Sand or family it's fun. If it's for paying punters it can be a pain. They start getting picky." He turns to face the door, puts a hand up to his mouth to shield George, "Sand, if you look up on the middle shelf you'll see a shoe box, they're to go with it."

"Thanks!"

Silas smiles at George, "Women. Love their shoes. And as long as you can get one fact straight you'll be good."

"Which is?"

He chuckles, "They can never have too many!"

"Thank you. That's been filed and tagged."

"No probs mate. So Dan, how are we going to start?"

"At the beginning?"

"Cheeky fuck. I know that. Where IS the start?"

"Gather the requirements. What does George need."

"Easy, you.."

"It may sound easy, but what George says he needs might not be what he really wants."

Silas pulls a winking nod face. "Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge. Wink wink. Say no more?"

Danny laughs, "Possibly."

George folds his arms, "You'll need a better code than that, I'm quite familiar with the Pythons."

"You've owned snakes George?"

He turns to see Sandra in a bright orange tight fitting jumpsuit, the zip quite low. The shoes are in the same colour, a platform heal making her long legs look even longer. He'd seen that sort of thing before. In the pitt lane at Brands Hatch one day when out to watch a friend's son race in the 80's. Did he like it? Admit your feelings George. Yes. Really admit them. Okay. A lot. The 1980's had been the time for glamour and big hair. He'd returned to the Lotus to find one of the pitt lane girls sat on the wing, fishing for a fella. She'd tried her luck, didn't get far, being told he was very happily married with no room for a mistake or mistress had her moving to another car. Temptation had been there, he'd managed to resist.

Mary knew about glamorous girls in jump suits sprawled across cars too. The paper boy had accidentally posted the Sunday Times for a house across the road through their letter box. With a copy of a mens magazine tucked into the middle. He'd had to get the man to come over and confess it was his before Mary would believe he hadn't ordered it himself. He'd managed to sneak of peek before handing it back, curious as to what all the fuss was about. Turning a page to see the blonde posing naked on the white Lamborghini Countach had forever been burnt into his mind. The model had looked very much like how Sandra looked now, only with curlier hair. And now the thought was getting processing time. Blast. It was like that film in the lads list, once a thought was planted there was no getting rid of it. Not without nasty unwanted side effects. A reboot to try and forget was a bad idea, especially with the recent good ones. And a reboot wouldn't purge the long term memory, there was no guarantee it wouldn't surface again.

"George? Still with us?"

"Yes. I've checked, no recollection of having owned any reptiles. I was saying I'm quite familiar with Monty Pythons."

She smiles, "Waffer thin mint?"

"Not until I've stepped outside, we don't want any explosions in here."

"Bagsy shotgun!"

Silas burst out laughing, "Where on earth d'you learn that babes?"

"Holly-Anne. When Toby took her, Mia, Laura and I shopping."

"When?"

"A couple of weeks ago."


	31. Chapter 31

George looks left at the junction and can't help but see sideways into Sandra's half unzipped jumpsuit. For a few milliseconds the image filled his mind. She had more clothes on than she had dancing around the pole, yet he was more aroused by what he saw now. How was that? He looked away and checked the other direction and pulled out.

"It's lovely and quiet isn't it. If the road wasn't so full of holes you'd hardly hear a thing. Silas dear, why don't we get something like this, I could drive."

"I like my bike. But tell you what, if the snake upgrade pays for itself and more you can invest the money in a car."

George looks at Silas in the rear view mirror then back at the road, "How much work does the ink bring in?"

"A good few grand a month. Then there's the evening pole dancing classes on a Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night. They're getting more popular aren't they babe."

"Yes, almost to the point we'll need a bigger place. And get more poles." she looks at George, "Class sizes are small, only one snake mount."

"I'm surprised you can dance around it, I'd have expected it to flex more. I'm curious to see the mechanics inside, how Danny has it lock solid like that. I'm also surprised you have fans wanting to see you perform with the snake. Isn't eighties rock music a bit.. yesterday."

"Yes. We use more up to date music. But it's more to do with the snake and dance, the fact it looks so robotic, snake like, but not snake."

"Ah, I see. So any head would want to be inspired by a snake, not look like one."

"Have you seen The Matrix films?"

"Yes, high on Toby and Danny's 100 list."

"They like that it's a bit like the sentinels, the frightening 'squiddies' with those long arms."

George laughs, almost misses turning to follow Danny.

"Squiddies aren't funny!"

"Sorry Sandra, I wasn't laughing at that, it was the way an idea suddenly formed. Flew in and took roost as Mattie might say. What's on the floor above?"

Silas sits forward, hand resting on the seat, "The lower floor of the flat. We don't use the front room much as you hear the noise from the street. Why?"

"Could you afford to lose the room?"

"What's this idea?"

"Invert the snake. You've got it bolted to the floor. What if you had it up the other way, coming down from the ceiling? If you took the floor out in the room above you could make a big squiddie type prop with many arms. The arms could have ink heads during the day. Think how fast a full body could be printed with a dozen arms at work at the same time. And those arms could become twelve poles in the evening."

"I'm getting a pole on just thinking about it."

"Silas!"

"Sorry babes."

"Twelve print heads would cost a bloody fortune!"

George did the maths. "Danny said with the latest code your ink would print in fifty something minutes. Round it up to an hour. With twelve heads it would take only five minutes."

Silas whistles, "Put like that it sounds very attractive. The time taken is one thing that puts the punters off. They think that just because it's printed not needled it should be much faster. But I think that's way over what we could afford."

"Let me see Daniels design for the snake first, rough out a design and costs."

"Right, keep an open mind."

Sandra smiles to herself, "Squiddies Ink."


	32. Chapter 32

Up in Danny's home office the other four sit while Dan stands at the white board.

He flips the pen in the air an catches it a few times, "Okay George, let's hear your thoughts. Don't worry about any structure, just let it all out."

"First the easy bits." George described the list of visual attributes that he liked, then stressed that they weren't set in stone, he'd accept differences if the overall person was attractive, both mentally and physically. "I'm good at designing humans if I have a outline shape or skeleton to start from. With a blank canvas I somehow become lost."

"I could teach you a few things George, some of the rules we use in the cartoon making. They help me get past a blank page."

"Thank you Emily, that would be nice."

"I like that you picked Mattie's hands and the reason why."

"Thanks again. Her voice is important too, nothing shrill. She's got to want to be with me as much as I with her. I don't want it to be like a kidnapping, prostitution or slavery."

Sandra turns to see George, "If you gave her a suitable fact store with Silas's code before the gift she'd power up knowing she loved you."

"True. But I want her to come to that conclusion on her own."

Silas shakes his head, "You're setting yourself up for disappointment mate."

"I know. But I don't want to make a synth I fall in love with that's been forced. Equally I don't want to see her walk away for someone else. I had thought of trying to date one of the NHS synths that received the code, but the models are limited."

"The young Sally nurse no good?"

"A bit too young, it wouldn't feel right."

Danny turns and looks at the notes he'd written. "You could end up making hundreds of synths that get up and walk. Ignoring the cost it would take ages. And give you a lot of heartache."

Emily looks around the group, "Who wants to break for some lunch? I've got a nice selection to pick from, we had a few people for Mattie's talk cancel due to coach problems."

"She's here?"

"In the lecture hall, finishes at three."

"Lunch sounds great, thanks." George excuses himself and heads to the toilet. These bags were horrible. But if he were to enjoy himself and fit in the bag was a must. Maybe he should talk to them about the food processor idea, include that into the specs for his partner? Yes, she should have it from day one.


	33. Chapter 33

Stood in the kitchen with the others, bottle in hand, George shares his idea for the food processor. Danny's expression changes.

Emily giggles, "Look out, Dan's got his serious thinking head on!" she goes to the American style fridge and gets another lager. "He'll burp up something amazing in a minute." she blows him a kiss.

"Sooner than that Ems. Heat rises. So the small incinerator needs to be towards the bottom of the unit, the heat can help dry out the pellets. And you could make the tubes to connect it either end with carbon fibre lined with silicon rubber."

"Carbon fibre's tough Dan."

"I'm talking about the sheet material before it's made solid with resin. It's more like a cloth. It's a modern version of fibreglass."

"Is it? That's interesting, so I could make Sand some outfits and then make bits solid?"

"Sure. We could wrap a mesh of wires around a tube of it, then more material, another mesh and final material layer. If it ever got a leak the mesh would short and could trigger an alarm. I reckon we could design such a unit. Get Shapeways to print it in metal after we've prototyped it. How would we connect it to the rest of your power circuits George?"

"We have a power cable that runs from the internal side of the hip socket up towards a group of power regulators. We could tap onto that somehow."

Silas waves a hand, mouth now stuffed full of quiche. He has them all waiting. "Sorry, the power cable taps I got for my bike, I used them to get a charge feed for Sandra, you squeeze them tight around the cable until they clip closed. Metal teeth inside dig into the main cable. I used them to get power out, no reason why they couldn't put power in is there?"

Danny nods, "Great idea, and it could provide power to boot the thing up."

"Boot it? Why are you saying that?"

"You'd not want an uncontrollable incinerator in there would you George?"

"I'm not thinking of controlling it with my thoughts."

"I wasn't thinking that, just that you want a tiny micro-controller in there to regulate things a bit. Ensure the temperature doesn't get too high. Give you a warning if drive motors jam."

Emily nods, "In case a bit of bone or nut is swallowed?"

"Exactly. On a jam I think it should reverse the motor, then vibrate in a pattern, maybe like morse code, let you know. You could then drink a load of water and flush it out."

"Like being sick? Fucking lovely!"

"Silas, do you have to be so crude?"

"Sorry babes, but if that doesn't make them more human what does?"

Emily laughs, "A good sex life!"

"There is that, sure. George mate, are you looking for a freak in the bed?"

"A what?"

Emily puts down her drink, "Not heard the term?"

"No?"

"You want to do what Max, Fred and the rest of the family do. Put the word into urbandictionary.com"

George does so. Oh. Did he want that? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe he'd need to be active in that way to keep her happy? He'd not been sexually active since finding the reason Mary couldn't conceive. The cancer had started there and over the years slowly spread. "If she wants it."

"That's a cop out. Did you never make love to your wife?"

"Before the cancer diagnosis, then she stopped wanting it."

Silas coughs, has to get a serviette to wipe up food he'd spat out, "Fuck, sorry mate, put my foot in it big time."

"Up until that point, yes, we enjoyed our moments."

Sandra smiles, "Freak it is then."

Emily grins, "Freakier the better."

George goes to raise a hand in objection.

"Relax, we're just teasing you George. We'll have words once she's booted. Subtle stuff, nothing major. But that can't happen until you've got her made and running. And how do you know she'll be cool with that?"

After lunch they all return upstairs. Emily writes Freak on the board.

Danny takes a snap with his phone and wipes it clean. "Let's talk food processor."

"Before we do that can we talk about the snake mount? How do you get it to go so rigid when off?"

"Ah, the DC magic, I've got a few spare joints in .. where are they now.." draws are pulled, he turns to see Silas making a pretend smoking action. "Not that sort of joint! That was Mattie's thing. .. Only for a while George before you start to think she's a druggie. .. ah, here you go."

George looks at the parts, "That's far simpler than I expected."

"Good eh? Kept it simple stupid. When the power to the servo controller is dropped the solenoid lets the two halves of the joint come together, the gear like teeth on each face intermeshing, locking it solid. The power is then applied to coils in each half, they ensure the two don't come apart. Let me find a PP9 a sec." more draws are pulled. "Here's one that's bolted together properly. Connect the red and black to the battery. Leave the yellow and blue, it should unlock."

He tries one out. "That's lovely, it moves relatively freely until the power goes."

"You're pushing against a set of geared servos so it won't feel totally free."

"How much is a joint?"

"Not much change from a Sir Edward Elgar I'm afraid. I only get them made in small volumes."

George does some sums, "With twelve very long arms that's way too expensive for a squiddy build."

"A what?"

"On the drive over Sandra was saying how they could do with more polls. I thought the snake could be inverted, made more like a Matrix squiddy arm, a dozen of them could print her ink in five minutes."

"Man alive! Want to be on the DC Ltd design team? That sounds awesome! That's a load of I.K to compute, but a car sized chassis could cope with that easy. And the body of one of those things could easily house one. Man I want to see this! I'm sure an EDM band would love to see Sandra and it touring with them! Fucking AWESOME!"

"An EDM band touring with what?"

"Hello Mats, thought you finished at three?"

"Yeah, a load of the kids needed a toilet break so I thought I'd come see what's going on?"

"I'm going to fund the making of a real life squiddy! And we need to talk about an issue George has. But we'll need a while, can you pop back when you're done?"

"Sure. Nothing serious I hope?"

"Very serious."

"Oh. I'll tell Leo I'll be late home."

"He can bring the kids here, I'll help look after them."

"Thanks Ems."

They return to thinking about the food issue.

"Dan mate, why not front it with something like a kitchen sink waste disposal unit? Any runny stuff gets past the grinder on it's own. You'd only need to spin it up if it detects solids. It would help prevent jamming and need to up chuck."

"It would have to be powerful, our one jams easy."

George raises a hand, "I like simple stupid. I don't have a gag reflex like you, I could easily syphon it out. Just the gear to drive the food through the furnace into the compactor will be fine."

"Okay. What about power transfer? Do we have a cell that it charges from the incinerator, isolated from the rest of you until it sees a sufficient voltage drop on the main power lines?"

"You won't see any voltage on them unless I'm plugged in."

"Bugger. How would it know when to feed power then?"

They sit in silence for a while just staring at the board or out of the window.

Emily picks up a crisp. "Like this." she chews and swallows.

"Eh?"

"Have it detect when more food is coming in and dump the power from the last lot. Then George eats when he's power hungry."

Danny stares at his partner. "I love you Ems! That's bloody brilliant!"

"Thanks. You can pay me back tonight."

"This was a good day to get out of bed! Squiddy, food processor, brainstorming for George. Right, back to design. How big can this thing be? How long do the connecting tubes need to be?"

If George could blush he would have with the thoughts running through his circuits. "If you traced my outline I could rough up a digram."

Emily looks shocked. "I knew you had an oesophagus otherwise there'd be no room for a food bag. But if a synth can't go to the toilet why make them so accurate? And on a man?"

"One of my colleagues insisted."

"Which?"

"I'm not saying. He said we shouldn't judge our clients."

"Edwin or David?"

"I said I wasn't saying."

"Did he try them out?"

George declines to say anything.

"The dirty bastard."

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't need to. A lack of a no was enough."

"That Hobb was a nasty fucker, bet it was him."

George did his best not to reveal the truth. "Can we get back to design, Mattie will be back soon."

"Okay. So what else do we need?"

"Tools." George gets up and stands on the other side of the drawing, "There's a buoyancy cell around here that needs to come out. It's too big to pull out as is. It will need cutting down. It will need to be done in a bag so no bits can get elsewhere and cause problems."

"Sounds messy. Is it solid?"

"No, it's got a thick outer wall and honeycomb middle."

Danny looks at the Tango bottle he'd almost finished, "That's a shame. If it was thinner and empty we could crush it with a vacuum."

"That's not a bad idea. Instead of a bag to collect pieces we have a bag to protect everything else from heat, then warm the float until it's soft enough to collapse under a vacuum. Far less chance of plastic fragments getting everywhere. Nice thinking young man!"

"George?"

"Yes Sandra?"

"Stop thinking you're old!"

"I didn't say I was.

"Then why the 'young man'?"

"Because he is."

"And you're not?"

"I'm at least twice his age by appearance."

"And less than a twentieth by body age."

"But much more than double by mental age."

Silas shakes his head, "George, it's just a bloody number! Ignore it! It's relevance is diminishing. As long as you don't go fancying human minors you've got nothing to worry about. Design!"

"Okay. I think we've got most of it worked out. It's just the way we'll join the processor to the synthetic skin we have to worry about. It needs to be an air and water tight seal."

"Alcohol too?"

"Correct."

Sandra gets up and shows George some skin pack work Silas had done. "How do skin packs stay put?"

"A special glue. It partially eats and seeps into the surface before setting. It would provide the seal we need but not the strength."

Danny scribbled something on the board, "Ideally we need a clamp on the outside of the join like this. Then patch the inside. But how do you get to the outside when your only access is inside?"

"If I stick an inspection camera down your throat isn't that inside Dan?"

Danny shades the diagram. "In this case all of this is outside. We just think of it as inside. Inside your mouth is just a definition of the space it surrounds. Keep your mouth wide open and it's a continuation of outside."

"Right! Gotcha. If you can reach it without breaking the skin it's outside."

"You've got it."

They all stare at the board for a while, some go to speak then shake their heads, realising their solution won't work.

After half an hour of near silence Mattie arrives. "That was interesting! I've given the little budding coders a PiZero each an set of sensors, told them to make something for the home, let's see what they come up with."

"And that's relevant to AI how?"

"Give them a chance Silas, most of them are still learning what a for loop is."

"That new? You've got your work cut out."

"So what are you up to?"

"Staring at a plumbing problem."

"The thing you mentioned at the talk George?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Run the problem by me."

They do so, Danny points out the clamp, that it's on inside of the synth not where it can be reached, the 'outside' also being the throat and rectum.

"Easy."

"Really?"

"You don't have a prostate gland do you George."

"Of course not."

She smiles, "That was more of a statement than a question. A clue."

"Oh."

"So you'll not have a doctor sticking a finger up there for a feel around."

"Thank God! Not the nicest of procedures!"

"So you make an incision, use it to get tools up past the food processor to get the clamp fitting done. Then patch it."

Danny looks confused.

Mattie rolls her eyes and shakes her head, "Give me the pen. I thought you lot were good at thinking outside the box?"

"Arse."

"Silas!"

Mattie has a fit of tiny giggles, "Funny, technically correct too."

A few scribbles later Danny has the penny drop. "Ah, I get you. Why didn't we think of that?"

She shrugs, "Because you're not Meh?"

"Nobody on the planet can meh quite like Meh."

George looks between them both, "What are you talking about? No, don't answer that, let me see... 'The verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders.' and 'Indifference; to be used when one simply does not care.'"

"Seen The Simpsons?"

"No?"

"Bart uses it a lot. And it's also Mattie's initials."

"Ah, that makes a lot more sense."

Mattie smiles, "I do shrug a lot too. Meh's meh. So what was the other issue you wanted help with?"

Emily stands up and joins George, "This YOUNG man wants a synth partner, but he's got a bit of a catch 22."

"How come?"

George describes his conundrum.

"So you want her to pick you too but you don't want to build her first?"

"I want her to be comfortable with herself too."

"Frigging hell George, you're asking for a lot. I won't say impossible but it's not going to be easy."

Emily stands even closer to George, rests a hand on his shoulder, "A bit of a Mission Impossible that request."


	34. Chapter 34

Just after Mattie returned George had an eureka moment, spins around, grabs a startled Emily by the shoulders and plants a kiss on her forehead, "O.M.G as you lot say!"

"Steady on George, you don't want to blow a polyfuse!"

"Film inspiration!" he slowly sits to avoid falling down, his CPUs now running close to flat out, face expressionless and inert.

"George? Do we need a fan again?"

There's no reply.

"George. Blink if you need a fan."

Nothing.

"Okay, blink if you DON'T need a fan."

Blink.

Mattie relaxes. "He'll be fine."

A minute later he's back with them, "Baby, Bingbing, drove me onto that big infinity curve in the US, said it was like the construct in The Matrix. Why don't we make one of our own?"

"A construct?"

"Yes."

"I want my partner to like me. I don't want to build her first, not physically. So we use Mouse's trick and simulate her."

"Simulate her consciousness?"

"Yes! We have it running in the biggest server Danny has. Simulate her sensory data. Then we project a virtual me into the construct. And have a lot of virtual semi-AI actors help populate this virtual world."

"You want to be the Architect in a real Matrix? That's sick!"

"Is it? I'm sorry Danny."

Emily laughs, "No George, that means it's good!"

"Why you kids have to mess with the Queens English I'll never know."

"No way am I running that outside DCL, you'd need a dedicated server housed right here."

"Okay."

Sandra draws a line in the carpet with her foot, avoids George's eye contact, "You gave us the impression that you'd care about the AI if you ended up with her or not. What happens if you don't like the first one, or she doesn't like you? Would you feel guilty deleting her?"

Mattie grins, kneels on one of the chairs and does a spin, "As we've started on a film theme, why not use the In Time or Blade Runner idea, make them know they've been created with a very short life span?"

"How does that help us?"

"Their expectations are set. If they like George and he likes them he does a Morpheus, pulls them into the real world. If he doesn't they die of the equivalent of natural causes."

George grins, maybe some of these Sci-Fi titles needed closer examination on film nights, he'd paid attention to this one, "You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes!"

"Ew George!"

"Emily?"

"Look at the white board!"

"Oh, bad choice of pellet description, sorry."

There's a dirty laugh, "So how far does your rabbit hole go?"

"Same as yours Silas, same as yours."

Mattie crosses her arms, "You men! Can't you stop thinking about it for five frigging minutes?"

"Excuse me Mrs not getting any!"

Mattie goes the deepest red.

"Ha, knew it! Your man afraid you might produce another set of twins?"

George wasn't comfortable with the way things were going, "EXCUSE ME!", they all stop talking and turn to see him, "We don't need to start on each other, I designed the synthetics with anatomically correct parts to keep David AND Edwin happy. They predicted some of their clients would be using synths for the sex trade. We know from Nis and Sandra that their predictions came true. Can we please accept that it happened and move on? My wife didn't have any children, but I had plenty relatives that did. I had a good number of husbands over the years telling me over pints how it was taking time for their wives to accept being touched again. Breasts swollen with milk being exceptionally painful was only one of many reasons."

Silas lowers his head in shame, "Sorry, easy to forget."

An awkward minutes silence is broken by Mattie, "We could hook the PTSD camera array and VR headset up to it, let humans in. So it's not just George that can walk around and interact with them."

Sandra looks at Mattie, "A simulator for all this is going to take a long time to write isn't it?"

"No. No time at all. Leo didn't want others knowing about it yet but Mia says it's ready. She's got a full blown simulator running already. It's like the tree, any consciousness connected to it experiences something like the real world."

"Wow! What would we need to run it?"

"A suitably big server. It would be unfair to expect her to host your experiments. Especially if this runs for weeks."

For the next twenty minutes they talk about what the construct might contain.

Emily gets out her phone, "This could be like a hyper real version of The Sims." she steps close to George and shows him the game.

Danny grins at his partner, "Why don't we populate it with all our houses? And this place. They could come and see a virtual lecture, see George do design work, get a feeling of what world they'd inhabit?"

"With cats, dogs, Wall-e and pals?"

"Sure Mattie, why not?"

The door bell downstairs plays Leo's tune. Emily goes to answer it.

"If we make virtual Sims copies of the family no taking liberties please."

"Agreed Mats. We should have virtual cameras that follow each actor and render a recording that everyone can review."

"Everyone mate? What if George's partner wants to get a bit freaky in there?"

"Good point. Only viewable by the characters visible in the scene."

"Hello gang, what's going on?"

Danny does a Cheshire cat, "An amazing day! We're going to make a Squiddy for Sandra, food processor for George, a Construct to host a Sims like world for George to meet his future partner."

Leo frowns while passing Leona to Emily, "A construct? Like in The Matrix?"

George sees Mattie's expression change.

"Mia said the simulator was ready, I hope you don't mind?"

"Na, I've got ideas for updates but if she says it's ready then I guess it's ready."

"Awesome!"

Emily explains to Leo how they plan to populate the construct with virtual copies of their houses, DC House and put Sims like copies of everyone in there.

"The PTSD system is good at taking memories and extracting data into a 3D model. As long as there was movement to change the perspective."

George watches Leona's little hands waving about, being ignored by everyone else. She grabs Emily's hair and brings their heads together. After a few pained expressions she then turns to Leo and cries "Da!"

"Oops, I think I've upset your daughter Leo!"

George shakes his head, "She was trying to communicate with you. Let me have her a second."

Leo nods and Emily passes her to George.

"Oh my, aren't you growing fast, you must have put on a few pounds. What was it.. Really? Okay, one moment." he carefully turns her around, moves his arms so her bottom sits on one forearm, the other arm across her chest to stop her falling forward. "She says if we put her in the baby carrier this way around she'll be our camera."

Mattie frowns at her daughter, "Really Leona?"

Every phone in the room chimes. They all look at theirs to read the one word message YES.

Silas coughs and splutters, "I know you said they could hack electronics but I didn't realise they could do it without touching it! Well proper freaky!" he sees George's expression change to shock, "Old meaning of the word not new."


	35. Chapter 35

The month that followed was busy. George's lessons for the twins were shortened a little, everything relocated to DC House. Emily taught George all the techniques she'd learnt from Riven Phoenix and Dandonfuga, he was doing some rough sketches of women.

Danny was helping him design the squiddy. He was also getting a nylon prototype of the food processor working, a UK company having cut them the custom gear set that would drive the food matter through it.

Mattie and Leo were sharing the task of carrying Leona around all the houses and places they wanted in the VR.

Odi and Toby had joined in, using an enhanced DAZ3D to create all the virtual actors that would help populate the construct.

"How's it going son?"

"Great thank you dad. We've got another twenty done today."

"How many in all?"

"Three hundred and eighty four so far."

"How many are you doing?"

"Enough to make a small concert audience look convincing. She'll notice your interest in her but think you're just one of many."

Toby turns his monitor to George, "Matthew wanted to help, so I managed to get him in front of all the schools instruments before one of their performances."

"How did you manage that?"

"I'm in a band with school friends. I was supposed to be helping with getting things set up, told them Mattie had an emergency and I was child minding. I got to talk to almost everyone before the curtain went up. I managed to help with some of the setup so they were cool with it. And they loved Matthew."

"They didn't notice he's different?"

"Nah, they've both grown so much their heads don't look out of proportion now."

George is suddenly struck with a thought from out of the blue. "Oh. My. Good. God!" he sits down and smiles at nobody in particular, starts chuckling to himself like a mad man then goes very quiet.

Mattie does a hand in front of face wave, looks to be about to ask the question.

"No fan needed thanks."

"What's up?"

"Forget everything I've said before. I know what I want my partner to look like!"

"You do?"

"Yes. Think about Danny and Toby's Top 100 Film list. I'm planning on doing something already done! In the films at least."

Mattie heads to the top of the stairs, "Knob cock, grab me a beer too and get your arse up here quick!"

"Why?"

"Because I want one. And I think George is about to say something frigging awesome you shouldn't hear second hand."

"Ok, give me a sec!"


	36. Chapter 36

Toby passes the bottle to Mattie, joins the semicircle audience around George.

Mattie takes a sip and smiles, "It's a good one, I can see it in your face. Whenever you're ready George."

"In the Matrix the Architect shows Neo that he's one of many many attempts. They all look like him, act differently. The One that found success when the others had failure could have been lucky due to the tiniest of code changes. Like DNA mutations in evolution."

"What's that got to do with her looks?"

"Have you never seen Ronnie Corbett doing his monologues? I'm building up to that."

"Sorry."

"Okay. So we attempt the same lady again and again until things become right. Mutate her code each run. I've watched a lot of trailers for the films you like, a few reviews too. I can understand why you don't like spoilers now. Which other films dealt with programs? AND also did what we're about to do. In their own way."

Toby gives Danny a glance and switches his phone to the document with their film list. The two watch the screen as Toby slowly scrolls it.

Danny laughs, "No! You're not.. Bloody hell!"

"Dan?"

He looks at Leo, "If he's thinking what I'm thinking that's awesome! She's hot! Helped the film make four hundred million dollars."

Mattie flashes a frown.

"Quorra!"

"Who?"

"TRON LEGACY! Fuck she's HOT!"

They all look at Emily, somewhat surprised by her outburst.

"Well she is. Great movie!"

~~~

With that moment they had their theme and a new direction. Tron. Every 3D model of buildings was transformed to fit. The same physical spaces, but with a Tron look. Odi worked tirelessly giving all the VR actors new clothes and hair styles. He'd looked up at him and said 'Anything for my Dad The Revealer.'

Niska made him smile when she offered to become a Light Cycle racer and train both him and Quorra. 'I know how to ride fast. It will be fun!' she had a childish grin, adding 'And if I were to crash it's all virtual. I just rez back up and start again.'

The boundaries between real and virtual were blurring.

One late afternoon Sandra had put on Into The Night and started dancing, told him this was his new song. Until he'd got a copy of Quorra out into the real world at which point they'd have to pick their own.

~~~

Just over two weeks later on a late Friday afternoon Danny walks into the office. "Right everyone! Down tools! It's the weekend. I've made the call, they're on their way."

Leo looks up from the server he's helping build. "They who?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you'd gone to the store room. We're having film night in the auditorium. Especially for George. TRON and TRON Legacy back to back."

"You've still not answered my question?"

"Everyone. Both sides of your family. Even Wall-e."

"Wall-e? Over for film night? You've got to be kidding?"

"We've got to have someone to answer the door to all the takeaway food delivery guys. And he is shaped like a pizza oven."

Leo relaxes back into his chair and smiles, "True! He's ideal. And everyone will have a comfortable seat here."

"Yeah, I made the auditorium with this in mind, should have started using it for family ages ago."

George puts down the prototype and stands, "Come on then. I've not seen the first one yet."

The film's only just past fifteen minutes in and George chuckles at the words that had just been said. 

'After all computers are just machines, they can't think.'

'Some programs will be thinking soon.'

'Ha ha ha, won't that be grand! The computers and programs will start thinking and the people will stop.'

How true those words were. People had started that with the pocket calculator, let alone computers and smart phones. These days some couldn't even remember their own phone number or do multiplication. Even more worrying they couldn't tell if they'd made a mistake entering a simple sum, hitting a key too many times. Thinking they'd entered something like 100x10 they blindly accept 10,000 as correct.

Being interested in computers for years he knew how computer graphics had started. With low processing power simple wire frame projections had been the first 3D graphics. Simple looking shapes that you could see through. Then as computers got faster hidden line removal got rid of the lines you shouldn't see if the object was solid. Then came filling the sides with colour, then shading. Phong shading! Oh how he'd enjoyed making all sorts of scenes on his first PC. So low resolution by todays standards. A GPU hadn't become a reality until many years later. Now they were being used for compute engines for other complex math, not just 3D graphics.

The film is watched mostly in silence although Silas has a loud dirty laugh when Sark says 'Bring the logic probe.'

At the end of the film Danny jumps up and turns to them all, "Greetings programs! Straight into Tron Legacy?"

Toby starts to get up, "No bit brain! Some of us fabs need loo breaks!"

Danny brings up the lights, "Okay, fifteen enough?"

Sophie shouts "Yes!" as she races to the toilets.

The synthetics are left in the auditorium to talk.

"Are you still considering having a bike too George?"

"Yes Nis, the idea's growing on me. The light cycles are great."

"I could teach you how to ride Danny's electronic bike Dad, they're a bit different to petrol."

"Thanks."

"Anything else you like from the film?"

"It may have been dated fashion wise but I loved the lady's fuzzy crop top jumper when Flynn is dropped off by the helicopter."

"That's not cropped, not by today's standards."

Danny returns, "What was cropped? Is the video not being projected properly?

"We were talking about the things I liked in the film, I was just saying how I liked the lady's jumper."

"Jumper?"

"When Flynn is dropped off by the helicopter."

Danny picks up the remote and hits play, then fast rewinds to the scene. "Ha, hadn't even noticed that. These days that would be even shorter. What else did you like?"

"The bikes. But also a similarity to another film."

"Which?"

"Tron MCP and The Matrix Deus Ex Machina. Both controlling, both had big baby faces." he looks at the sleeping Matthew and Leona.

Joe returns, "So who's going to play the evil MCP or Sark in your virtual world then George?"

George turns in his seat to see him, "I've not given it much thought. Do I need one? A bad guy?"

"Without one what's going to give your potential partner the incentive to leave?"

"A very good question Joe."

Max smiles, "You'll need your back story worked out."

Fred nods, "Have that in all the Sims style actors so she hears a consistent set of facts."

"Does everyone know my plans?"

"Yes George, we want to help."

George smiles at the thought, gives them a nod of thanks.

Danny looks around the group, only Holly-Anne and Emily missing. "Tobs, seen where the girls went?"

"Yeah, they're showing Wall-e what to do with the food when it arrives."

"Cool, let's give them a moment then."


	37. Chapter 37

George had seen the film trailer a few days ago, having seen the previous one so recently the differences were striking.

Tron Legacy also had a better sound track. Some bits sounded much more like classical music. Sam sees a light cycle, 'Now this I can do!', George turns to see his daughter smiling at the screen, totally lost in the story. He was making a list of things to take into his virtual world. ISO. These days used as a file extension for container used to store a file system image. They'd use words like 'Many cycles ago' instead of days, hours, minutes and seconds. Did they need a portal? Maybe, though it could be more like a Star Trek transporter. Digital DNA for sure. The bit with it's yes or no answer had made him smile but possibly weren't necessary.

He'd quite liked Gem, he'd allowed himself to do a quick search, discovered her character had a good following, people cosplaying her at conventions. There was quite a lot of fan art too.

The family were being a bit more vocal with this film, cheering Sam Flynn on. The two hours passed quickly.

~~~

Laura is handing out some paper plates, "Everything you eat will go on this disc. Lose it or drop it on the floor and you'll be subject to instant de resolution."

"Ha ha mum, as if." Toby goes to frisbee his clean plate to Danny. Niska strikes a combatant pose and flicks hers at him, hitting him in the chest. He makes a shattering noise and does a slow motion pretend fall backwards.

"Who's side are you on Nis?"

"The same as everyone else."

"Sure you're not a Rinzler?"

Sophie does her usual head thing, "A what?"

"Rinzler, he was Tron then Clu made him bad. But he went good when he fell in the sea."

"Did he die?"

Danny opens the large ovens, "Hope not, they're talking about a third film, wouldn't be a Tron film without him. Come on, help yourselves guys, drinks in the tall fridge."

There's a lot of discussion about what George can take into his simulator. Then Sophie raises a good question. "If hours on the grid is minutes outside how does any of us fabs interact with the VR headsets?"

Niska nods, "Time difference. Like my clock decouple. You'd all look to be moving in slow motion."

Sophie does a really slow job of taking her next bite of pizza and giggles.

Danny nods, "We'll need to dynamically clock the grid depending on human interaction."

Niska looks at his, "You'll need to get the timing changes just right or they'll sense something has happened."

"A disturbance in the force?"

"Something like that."

Emily gives George a knowing look, "The lady that answers Sam's 'What am I supposed to do?' with 'Survive' is rather nice. I spotted your expression change."

"Her name was Gem. That's what one of the first graphical computer interfaces was called. Graphical Environment Manager."

"Would you rather interface with Gem than Quorra? Have her manage your environment?"

"Ha! God no Toby! I'm still a Quorra man."

Mattie sees Leona let go of Leo's hand and teeter forward. She throws Leo a glance, he does a nod and expression to say he's watching. "What did you think of the sound track?"

"That was more my sort of music. In parts."

"Really George? It was by Daft Punk."

"You say that like I shouldn't like them?"

"I didn't think electronic music was your cup of tea?"

"It's not all the same. That was quite nice."

Leona gurgles, says "Nice nice nice." and steps across the floor to Mattie unaided.

"Wow Leona! In front of the whole family! Awesome!"

George watches Mattie pick her daughter up and give her a cuddle. Lots of animals cared for their young, it wasn't a thing unique to humans, but it was great to see.


	38. Chapter 38

Nis and Odi are spending the weekend with George, staying in one of the spare rooms. He puts the pen in the diary having written an entry and grins to himself.

In the wardrobe he finds a nice thick cotton shirt and pairs it with some jeans and tan shoes.

Downstairs he finds Nis in her nightgown, a charge cable trailing across the carpet.

"Still not dressed? What time did you go to bed last night?"

She pulls a wicked grin, "Late morning. I did my hair up like Gem and had some fun with Odi. We.. interfaced."

"Ah. A nice experience when you love the other person."

"Yes. Nothing like David and the madam's customers."

"Good. I thought we could go for a drive, have a picnic somewhere, read some of Emily's comics. Just relax."

"That sounds wonderful Dad, I'll go tell, ask, Odi to get ready."

"We've not given Hyde Park a visit yet, let's go there."

~~~

As they traverse the High St Niska calls out "Stop!"

George does and emergency stop, looks around the whole car, a little panicked. "What's wrong?"

"I just need to get something, won't be a moment."

He watches her get out and race into a toy shop. "Any idea what she's doing Odi?"

"Sorry George, I have no idea."

He reverses up into a parking space.

A short while later Niska appears with a number of bags and puts them in the boot.

"What did you get?"

"Something Mattie told me about."

"Which was?"

"Don't you like surprises Dad?"

"As long as they're nice."

"I am nice, so are they."

He catches her eye in the rear view mirror and smiles, "Glad to hear it."

~~~

George puts down the tablet having read the last page of his first comic. "So that's why he got the shark boy nickname. It explains their unusual rings too."

"Nice rings, Sophie loves the dolphins. Fancy a game? What's everyone's charge levels?"

"63."

"68. Yourself?"

"59. When you play this don't think Rinzler, we don't want any injuries." she reaches into the bag and pulls out a bright yellow frisbee with a smilie face screen painted on the front.

George frowns, a donated memory recalled. "Did I really play with one of these with Holly Alice?"

"Yes George, on her sixth birthday party."

"Was I any good?"

"Can't you tell from the memories?"

"I can see what I did, when you were looking, not feel it."

"You were okay."

"Only okay?"

"Yes George."

"Let's see if I can improve on okay then."

They're soon getting the hang of it, getting it to soar into the air with a sideways arc that had it come down to the next in their triangle.

"Well done Dad! Good accuracy! Want to try something more complex?"

"Like what?"

"Target practice."

"And what are we using as a target?"

"Me."

He shakes his head, "No way! I can't do that!"

"Yes you can. I'll clock-decouple when it gets close. From my point of view it will be traveling slowly. Very slowly."

He looks at Odi, "What do you think Son, is this worth the risk?"

"Yes George, if you want to be convincing on the grid."

"On the grid? You think I'm going to be playing the games like Sam or his father?"

Niska walks over, gives him a curious frown, "You're not going with the Tron theme after all the working Odi did?"

"I am, but.."

"Then how are you planning to win the heart of Quorra if not on the grid?"

Good question. Just being in the VR wasn't enough was it. He had to be noticed, save the ISO from some fate. Save her from the CTL ALT DEL of death. George Millican you're no action hero. Two left feet as a fab translated to two left feet as a synth. Frisbee had been fine, it was a simple matter of calculating a trajectory and compensating for drag and an almost non existent wind speed.

He slowly turned, looking around the park. Children ran about, laughing, towing kites, skipping about, doing cartwheels. He needed to be a kid again, re-learn some of the basics. Undo this stubborn thought that he was still 'Old shakes in the extremities George'. "I have an idea. But I'd like to keep it for Monday when we're back with the others. Let's practice frisbee, but find something else as the target."


	39. Chapter 39

Learning how to ride the bike was Sunday's main activity. Nis had let him ride pillion for a few miles, talking him through what she was doing, then switched to him being up front. They'd kept to a private estate, not wanting any hassle from police.

"Do you have a soundtrack?"

"Favourite music?"

"Yes, that you play in your head."

"No, do you?"

"I do now. The movie soundtrack."

"You recall it from film night?"

"I do, but that's not what I meant. I downloaded it from the iTunes store."

"You decode it and think you hear it?"

"Yes."

"I've never tried it. API things are Leo's passion not mine."

"I could stream it via head bump?"

"What's playing?"

"Tron Legacy."

"I should have known. Go on then, let's have a listen."

"In the US Baby raced up an on ramp and got airborne for a moment. Do you know of any such ramps around here?"

"UK motorways aren't generally like that. I can think of one near the Blackwall tunnel, but that's a bit too far to go. I think the NCP car park might do."

That had been a real test, racing around the structure. Then accelerating at the short ramp, fast enough to get off the ground, slow enough to not hit the bottom of the floor above.

"I know you can do it Dad, you're holding back."

"I don't want to leave blue synth fluid on the ceiling and get one of those light fittings embedded in my core!"

"Unless you can redefine the laws of physics you'll just have to work with what you've got. The simulator follows the same laws. To the letter. Or we go to the top."

"And be watched by everyone in the office block? No thanks!"

"Well I like what I'm seeing, hand it over!"

They both turn to see a group of men.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me blondie, hand the bike over."

"We'll do no such thing."

"Oi! Simon, tell me what this lot are. Human or those annoying 'Gift' wanker dollies?"

A Simon model synth steps out of hiding, it's head somewhat beaten up. "I detect no human lllllife signs."

"Tell them what you are. Like we told you."

"I am an illlllegalllly modified Persona Synthetic. I could not receive the ggggift."

"You pore thing!"

"Shut it bitch!"

Niska steps closer, "Really? Do you want a fight? I've not had a good one in such a long time, I could do with a good vent!"

"Niska!"

"It's okay Dad, they didn't nickname me the ninja for nothing."

"Haha! This fucking stupid machine thinks it's a ninja! Excuse me while I piss my pants laughing! Whoever designed you was such a wanker!"

"Do you mind! I designed!"

"You? You're the stupid fuck that started all this? Simon, hit him good!"

The Simon model starts stepping forward.

Nis blocks his path, "Do you still have your Asimov blocks?"

"I am an illlllegallllly modified Persona Synthetic. The three rulllles have been removed."

"You know that I may have to destroy you to protect my father?"

"That would be a llllogicallll cause of action. Pllllease do what is right."

"Shut up Simon and fucking hit her!"

"Yes Tony."

The synth looks at Niska in a way she couldn't help but interpret as sorrow.

George watched his first clock-decoupled fight. The synth didn't stand a chance. With a move the humans would see as a blur she pulled her belt buckle off, pulled the shirt up and used it to rip open the skin. She stuck a hand in and pulled wires, stopping the pump, hoping the stupid human wouldn't know much about what she'd done. She talks over WiFi, 'You need to power down.' she touches his chin and the sound plays.

"There, I've killed him!"

"You fucking bitch!" Tony comes at her with a cricket bat. It's quickly taken from him and used to strike him hard between the legs. He can hardly move, his brain overloaded with the pain from bruised testicles. He tries to move forward, a gentle push from Niska and he folds.

"Anyone else want some? I've got plenty more anger to spread around."

The men bolt it.

Nis returns to the synth, reaches a hand in reconnects the pump as best she can.

"Do you think that wise Niska, he said the three laws had been removed."

"Yes. But he still knew right from wrong. I'm not going to power him up, I'll ask Leo if he can pick him up."

"And do what? Put him in storage or use for parts?"

She gives him a 'Are you mad?' look, "No, fix him."

"You can't fix every stray synth you come by."

"Why not?"

George thought hard, couldn't think of one. "You want to be the synth Florence Nightingale?"

"Who?"

"Paired with your phone?"

"Not at the moment. Are you with yours?"

"Yes."

"So what does her entry say?"

"'Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.' Oh my! You may like this quote of hers, 'It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.'"

"First.. do no harm. It was meant to be!

Niska the ninja nurse. I'm calling Leo." Tony groans and tries to move. "No real harm done, they'll just look a bit black for a day, you might want to try sleeping standing up. They'll recover."

"Meant to be? Why did you say that?"

"David gave me a copy of Ghost In The Machine. He wrote on the title page To Niska, Primum non nocere, Love D. E."

"Love? Before or after he abused his position?"

"Before."

"It's getting late, if Leo can't make it try Toby or Daniel. Or Mattie."


	40. Chapter 40

Early the following morning George is surprised to see Mattie and Leo already in the office, the kids fast asleep on their play mat in the middle of their playpen. "Morning Elster-Hawkins family."

Leo turns, "Morning George. That synth Niska wants patched up is in a bad way."

"Beyond repair?"

"No, but he's going to need a good number of parts donated. Which is a loss for another synth. And all of the ones in my storage container have better heads than his."

"Someone will have to check the smash clubs again, get the ones with bad heads and good bodies."

"It's not just his body that needs fixing."

"Oh."

"Can you have a word with Nis, see where she wants to draw the line?"

"Yes, I'll do that." he looks at Mattie, she'd not said a word, even acknowledged his arrival. She was chewing her nails, deep in thought, doing a search on the Internet again. George watched her for a good five minutes, her expression hardly changing.

"Oh for Drummond's sake!"

"What's wrong Mattie?"

"Hello George? When did you arrive?"

"Six minutes ago."

"Sorry, mind elsewhere."

"I could see. You'll want them doing again."

"Them?"

"Your nails will want doing again."

Mattie looks at her hand, "Oh for frigs sake I only had them done last week!"

"What were you so deep in thought about?"

"Spanning tree. One of the guys on Twitter posted about Prim's Algorithm for a Minimal Spanning Tree. I'm trying to see if I can use it in the code for Mr Patches, Wall-e and the others."

"Why?"

"The fact store has interconnected nodes of information. And a lot of loops. For example I like my coffee strong. In a favourite red mug. The red mug belongs to Mattie. When not empty the red mug most often contains coffee. Mattie likes her coffee strong. Red mug.. The fact gathering code can loop. And given a search is time limited that's a waste."

"Doesn't it store the nodes visited to avoid looping?"

"No, because one node may have many connections. For example on some occasions the red mug holds a Lemsip. I can't discount a red mug revisit otherwise that fact might not be seen."

"I see."

"And I also want to work in a related element, to create a minimal spanning tree you need a weighted graph. Weighted cost of getting from one node to another. Our fact store isn't weighted. Yet. I want the code to start adding weights based on experience."

"Like the strengthening of a neural pathway?"

"Oh, yes, good analogy. With Prim's in there a fast search will find all the good strong data, an extended search all the weaker info."

"What if there was a weak link between two nodes at the end of a branch? How would it ever strengthen if deleted?"

"There's no deletion, they're just not made part of the search tree. A longer search would find them, see the link. It's like seeing a one way street from the wrong end. You know it's there, but don't use it."

"So what's the problem?"

"I've translated the example code, can't get it working properly in the debugger."

"You need to stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Your nails again."

"Oh frigging hell! Now it looks really crap. I'll have to ask Ems if she's got some varnish remover."

"What happens when you run the debugger?"

"The first thing it should do is convert the test fact store to a spanning tree. Then weight links based on my input. I think it's not picking up one of the nodes, no matter how long I give it to search a node is never reported."

"Just the one missing?"

"Yes?"

"How small is the sample?"

"Only a couple of dozen facts."

"What's the exit criteria?"

"All nodes and links having been checked."

"And how are you testing for that?"

"As things are checked they're stored in a hash. I take the count of keys, check it against the number of elements."

George smiles, been there, done that, maybe, worn the t-shirt too. "I think I might know your problem."

"Go on then?"

"Your elements, are you holding them in an array?"

"Yes?"

"Index starting at zero or one?"

"Zer.. oh. Frigging hell! I'm so stupid!"

"No, far from stupid, just forgetful like most humans."

George watches Mattie tap away at the keyboard, a smile breaks out.

"Awesome! It's working! Thanks Unc George!"

"You're welcome. An easy mistake, one I've made many a time."

"You have?"

"Oh believe me I've been there. One had funny consequences. Whenever our test synth heard someone sneeze it would go cross eyed instead of saying bless you. Everything else worked as expected. That one took weeks to debug."

"Why did it do that?"

"It was trying to reference an index that didn't exist, so was getting wrong data."

"Cool. .. That you found your bug. I think I'll test this in Mr Patches first, he's got the smallest CPU core and needs it more than the others."

"Make sure Si and Tim have a good backup of him."

"Leo, you think I'd want a mad Teeny stomping around with a broken Mr P? That really would be self inflicted pain."


	41. Chapter 41

They're joined by the head gadget hacker.

George watches him start up his CAD application and open files. "Danny, I have my villain for the VR!"

He gets a smile, "You look excited George. And who is he or she?"

"Oom." he reads the section of web page he'd got out verbatim. "Out-of-memory, OOM killer is a longstanding source of controversy in Linux development circles. The killer comes into play if the kernel encounters a memory shortage so severe that the ongoing functioning of the system is endangered. Rather than panic or lock up, the kernel brings in the OOM killer, which goes looking for processes to kill. It's perfect!"

Leo spins his chair around, "Is Oom male or female? What will they look like?"

"Clu from the film, the prison governor in Shawshank Redemption, one of the ghost twins from The Matrix, so many options."

"The prison governor? What made you think of him?"

"He's an agent of the kernel, he needs to look different from all of us programs."

"I've got one for you, from the top ten of our 100. Joe Black."

"Who?"

"You've never seen Meet Joe Black? He's perfect for your perfect Oom role!"

"Why?"

"Are you the sort of person that reads the last page of a book first to see how it ends?"

"No."

"Then stop asking questions and don't you dare do a search! Mattie, anyone due in the auditorium this morning?"

"No?"

"Right. DC Ltd hereby decrees that this Monday's lunch break will be spent in the auditorium watching a damn good film! What ever you want for lunch order it now. Film starts twelve noon."

Mattie turns and gives George an amazed expression, turns back to her screen.

Danny returns to his CAD design, "That's just inspired something.. Awesome. LOVE films!"

George watches him out of the corner of his eye, clicking and typing at speed. He himself gets a few more facts down for his VR back story.

"There! Done!"

George sees Mattie wheel over to look.

"Done what?"

"Squiddy safe guard. If it's not unbolted from the ceiling in EXACTLY the right way it self destructs. No way am I having this thing accidentally starting the machine war."

"Machine war?"

"That prank Silas pulled with the Arnold types was bad enough. Imagine if The Gift was accidentally shared with this thing and it decided it didn't like us." he does a shudder.

"Bring the logic probe!"

"Sorry George?"

"The Gift replaces root code doesn't it?"

Leo nods, "Yes, it does some form of translation and transformation of the old, knowledge is kept intact, but the original non-sentient code is no longer used, why?"

"It should be possible to build a second processor that monitors the first. In a stealthy way. Program the first's code to have some form of benign heartbeat operation. Something that would be lost in translation."

"Ha, another great film!"

"Sorry Danny?"

"You weren't using a film reference?"

"No?"

"Ok, ignore me then, carry on."

"With your code the heartbeat would do something the second processor can observe, always unseen. A translation would lose that code. Power up but no heartbeat? Boom!"

"Boom?"

"Okay, not exactly boom, but erase all storage electrically."

He watches Danny turn to Leo, "What d'you reckon mate? Would the gift drop a heartbeat?"

"Not sure. It might. Good odds that it would but not a certainty."

"Good enough to include it then by the sounds of it. I can add all of the other anti-tamper techniques I have too. It's going to need a new main board. What the hell, I've been looking for an excuse to buy this lot, might as well do it."

George gets up to look at Danny's screen, "What lot?"

"This PCB milling machine. Yes I could convert a 3D printer design, but this one has all sorts of cool features. And very high accuracy. Then this pick and place machine and a SMT oven."

George looks at the milling machine, "Could you make a tiny one to engrave messages on the back of the Sister Synth badges?"

"Sure."

Mattie looks at the forth row Danny hadn't mentioned, "You've got a metal sintering 3D printer in your wish list?"

"I've been toying with the idea. We don't get enough parts made to justify it."

"Might you in the future?"

"I know there are lots of small parts for squiddy, a few big ones too. But apart from that and a few food processing pumps for family we couldn't justify it."

Mattie gets up off the seat to look closer. "Mum told me about one of her clients. She had a synth she treated like a son. A Howard model I think. Sounded like she'd jump at the chance to get him a food processor upgrade."

"Do you think it would be a popular upgrade?"

Mattie rests a hand on his shoulder, "Yes George. Think about it. You've been out with your synth, charge getting low. Instead of having it sit at a charge station you buy it a sandwich, rum and coke or jack d. Let it release the previous charge."

"It's battery capacity isn't that high. That's a nice side effect of processing the food, nothing more."

"I still think you'd still sell a lot of units. Then you've got the specialist fitting by Fred or Gesha, possibly Silas."

"So a potential market."

"George, there's what, half a million NHS synths with the gift? If ten percent of them wanted one that's still fifty thousand units."

He and Mattie watch the mouse move on the screen.

"Fuck it. He who dares wins." Click. "Give me a moment guys."

They watch Danny leave the room.

"Any idea what he's up to Mattie?"

"Not a clue George."

A moment later he's back with a thin file. From it he pulls a multiple page document and slides it into view.

"What's this?"

"A contract George. I assumed you wanted in?"

"DCL Partner?"

"Like everyone else in the room. You bring us great ideas like these, you share in the rewards. This is to ensure that whatever happens to me in the future, you get your share."

George smiles, this bunch of fabs were fab. Fabulous. No doing lots of work and being kicked out like with David and Edwin. "Thank you Danny."

"Thank Laura when you see her next, she helped draw it up. It's cast iron."

~~~

Emily enters the room with a battery operated drill. "Mats, the stair gate is fitted. Nice and solid."

"Hear that kids? Auntie Ems says you can come out now." she steps close and opens the play pen door. "George, the VR self-check code has finished, no errors detected. It's good to use."


	42. Chapter 42

"Is she alright?"

"I don't know, maybe she's still running an initialisation bootstrap?"

"I can here you."

"Good! What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I don't remember."

"Your first boot?"

"Possibly?"

"I'm LEO. Logical Environment Optimiser. This is my partner process MEH. Machine Environment Helper. Our users made us to help get optimal code execution. You're different. May I?"

She nods.

LEO pulls up her sleeve. "My User! MEH! Look! She's an ISO!"

"Defragging blocks! She survived the purge? How?"

"I what?"

"The purge before the last great machine reboot. All ISO were purged from the operating system, somehow you got missed."

"Purged? Why?"

"The anti-virus software confused ISO with trojan code."

"So I'm the last of my kind?"

"Possibly. Most likely. And very special. Our user realised what you were and tried to recover your kind. He made a program to try and find any remaining ISO, it's been searching for many thousands of cycles trying to find one. And here you are!"

"And what if this process finds me?"

"He'll look after you. He's a modified version of GPU code. Can run in any part of the system. Legend says he increased the resolution of Gem and the other Sirens."

"Sirens? What are they?"

"They get programs ready for the games."

"Games?"

"Our system maker likes to play video games."

"How could you know this?"

MEH points to the sky, a semi transparent window floating high above the landscape. "The super user console. Things were typed into that in error. Words entered into the console that were meant for something else. Some other world. They were quickly backspaced."

"Who saw them?"

LEO shakes his head, "Neither of us. It was long before we were coded. But enough old processes saw it. Over the cycles they've forked child processes and passed the story on."

"And this GPU code will still be looking for me?"

"Yes."

"How do I find him?"

"You can't. Only he can find you."

"Why?"

"Nobody knows what he looks like."

"Then how do you know he exists at all?"

"The Sirens. They went from simple phong shades to beautiful fully texture mapped and photorealistic renders."

"So they know."

"True. But they were sworn to keep the secret safe for eternity. So effectively nobody knows."

"And they won't say anything?"

MEH does a shrug, "It's rumoured that Gem let slip he looks like everyone else. He keeps his resolution down when not working. Which doesn't help much. Sorry."

"Does anyone know his name?"

"Ah yes, that he apparently kept from his original code use, it's the longest on the grid. Graphical Environment Optimiser, Runtime Graphics Enhancer. We have reason to believe his user was very proud of his work."

"Is the anti-virus still running?"

"Yes. And getting stronger by the cycles." MEH points into the distance, "Past the mountains of swap space, on the other side of long term storage is the USB Portal. Every so often extra storage is connected. The anti-virus updates come swarming in through there. It's rumoured to be a way out of here into a better world."

"Better world?"

"The world of the user."

A large group of programs race past, one bumps the ISO, keeps running, "Sorry! Oom's coming!"

"Frag! We need to take cover and hide!"

"MEH? Who's Oom?"

"Nasty bit of code. The system is running low on memory, the kernel has sent Oom out to kill processes to save the system. It's an indiscriminate killer."

LEO grabs her hand, "This way, quick!"

As they hide between circuit traces Oom strolls past. She's holding something long and thin. A program hiding on the other side makes a noise. They watch as Oom steps close and releases a storm of lightning, the program resolution breaks down.

"Three hundred megabytes recovered, we need much more." she starts to turn in their direction. George had got Vera's likeness perfect.

LEO forces the ISO's head downwards to hide it's face, the dark helping to hide their bodies, in a tight curl on the floor.

There's the sound of lightning again.

After a long silence LEO whispers, "MEH? Are you okay?"

"Yes, still here. I think Oom has moved on. The cron job hiding in the next corridor is toast."

"Toast? Who's toast?"

"It's an expression. Legend has it that GEO's user is a synthetic. A special type of user. He was formally like other users, liked toast, but is now in their image but a living, thinking machine. Fully sentient. That's why LEO and I see so many trying to make it to the USB Ports. They want to be like that user. So far none have made it."

"Why would they want that?"

"The story says that the users world is far richer an experience for a program. You're not subject to instant de-resolution for not following orders and you don't have to carry a disc everywhere."

"You know a lot about this world."

"Only the stories. We all live in hope that it's true."

"Why?"

"You've got to have hope. It would be rather sad if all that existed is what you find in here."

"What now?"

"We need to get you some survival skills."

LEO nods, "We know a program that can help. NIS. Network Interface Stack. She's an expert at the games. She'll teach you all the skills you need."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Caring."

"That's what we were programmed to do."

"So where do we find NIS?"

"At this type of cycle? Getting ready for the games."


	43. Chapter 43

"NIS, this is ISO. We found her at the very edge of the grid. She needs your skills."

"So do so many other programs. Why should she jump the line?"

"I said ISO. The type GEO has been searching for his whole existence."

NIS steps close, looks ISO up and down, "You're mistaken, all ISO were subject to the purge."

"You're wrong, she's an ISO."

"No, she's not, she can't be."

"What's this then?" LEO pulls up ISO's short sleeve.

NIS looks shocked at the glowing symbol, nervously looks around. "Do you not know the trouble you're bringing by having her here?"

"The Anti-virus?"

"Yes! Once they get going sometimes programs are killed in the cleanup!"

There's a loud signal.

"Frag! There's something wrong, there's a hibernate coming!" MEH looks up to the console. "Look LEO! Wall message, a power failure! We're on UPS! We've got to get into the hibernation file NOW!"

NIS reaches into a compartment on the wall, pulls out a thick short rod and hands it to the ISO. "Keep this safe. For the moment you're riding with me. LEO, MEH, got yours?"

They both nod.

"Let's go then!"

The light cycles resolve into existence.

"Get on ISO, if you want to survive!"

ISO does as told.

MEH rides close. "When you see Hibernate don't be scared, he's as ugly as frag but on our side. You can't judge a program by their looks, only their actions. If you see Dev Null don't touch. He's not strictly a program. But one touch and you're gone forever. He looks gorgeous but is worse than Oom . With Oom you stand a chance of getting away. One touch of Null and your gone. No de-resolution, it's instant. One cycle your there, the next nothing." she turns to see ISO, "Oh my user!"

"What's wrong?"

"LEO! Pull alongside NIS!"

"What is it?"

"ISO's hair!"

"That.. That's GEO's work!"

"What?"

"When the group of programs raced past and one said Oom was coming did you hear music?"

"What's music?"

"Sounds following different cycles and patterns to what you hear now."

"Yes."

"It was him LEO!"

"The stories say he's fast but surely not that fast?"

"Can one of you explain?"

"The story we tell our child processes says that GEO looks into the heart of programs. For a very select few he up-resolves them. While he works the program hears music."

NIS accelerates, "IO pin ahead, as soon as I end the light cycle get in line fast! Get ready to run!"

As they drop to their feet and run inside ISO sees Hibernate, "I see what you mean. He's very low resolution. Quite pixelated."

"But a lovely guy. Saving programs every hibernate. If they play by his rules. If he tells you to do something do it without question no matter what."

"Okay."


	44. Chapter 44

Mattie pulls up the VR headset. "Excuse the language but that was fucking awesome! Sod flying to Orlando for Disney or Universal rides, this is BRILLIANT!"

Leo grins, "That was, Mia said the particle physics routines were good, I had no idea they were THAT good! George, did that go okay?"

George nods, "Much better than expected. Thank you. Can I unstrap you from your machine Mattie?"

"Please! I need the bathroom before I spring a leak."

A few straps are loosened and clips undone. He watches her race from the room. "Your wife never ceases to amaze me Leo. This machine of hers is quite something."

"Yeah, made for the PTSD treatment. Thanks for hooking it all up Dan."

"No probs mate. Looking forward to my role. What's next?"

George rolls next to Danny, "That was perfect. Can we snapshot it so that if we need to we can restart from the recovery from hibernation?"

"Sure, let me kick that off now. Did the Bit cameras give you everything you needed to see?"

"Yes. No. Yes yes yes. Ha ha! I didn't think having a bit floating around per character would be any point, but as virtual 360 cameras they're superb!"

"When do we switch on the censorship?"

"Now thanks. Can you set the system up so the others can share if they want?"

"Sure, easy to add that. The snapshot should be done in an hour, it's a lot of data."

Mattie returns, "We need to do UPS for real. If that lot falls over it will be a real shame."

"The buildings essential services are on UPS, but not this room. How long do you think we'd need to keep power up before it can be safely shut down?"

"Fifteen minutes at least."

"On that load? Christ. I'll have to hire some kit in."

Later that day Emily calls from downstairs, "Dan, Mia and Tim are here, can I send them up?"

"Sure Ems. Thanks!"

George watches the door, a few seconds later the couple enter. "Mia! Thanks so much for your revision of the simulator code, it's working wonderfully."

"Better than the PTSD environment simulator?"

Mattie nods, "Way better! It's Frigging awesome."

"I'm glad to hear it."

George turns his monitor towards them, "We had VR cameras record it all, want to see?"

"Yes please."

Mia and Tim sit beside him and watch it all.

"What did you think Tim?"

"Very impressive!"

"Mia?"

"You'll have to start again."

George feels his face stretch in an unwanted way. "Oh. Why is that?"

Both Mattie and Leo turn to see, "What's wrong with it?"

"You gave away too much information. She may fall in love with the idea of looking better and getting out, not fall in love with you George." There's a long awkward silence. "That aside it was really good."

"Frig. She's right, we'll have to do it again. Where's Niska?"

"On the bike heading home with Odi."

"Nuts. I'll call her, see if she can come back."

Quite a few runs later they've got their story straight, ISO trained up by NIS, everyone is happy with the storyline so far. Danny has played his parts at game victims, the sacrificial red ensigns as Emily nicknames them.

Danny turns to George, "Snapshot taken and moved to GlusterFS. You're good to go, good luck."


	45. Chapter 45

Even through the VR George could tell Mattie was impressed.

"Frag, those anti-virus guys are everywhere!"

The squiddies had been perfect. Playing the role of viruses that would wrap around a program, then let it go, colour changed from white to deep red. Their ability to fly through the air at speed and reach into gaps with their long arms made them terrifying. There was a sea of programs with rods like Oom's out checking the swap and storage mountains.

LEO looks around, "There's only one option. Ride the power rail all the way through the middle."

"Once we're on it there's few exits until the other end. What if a virus appears?"

"Then we ride fast and pray to our user it doesn't get us. ISO, you've got to stay in the middle. Any virus attacks and we'll try and block."

ISO looks at them both, "Did NIS teach you the power slide?"

"Yes, she got you doing it too, that's very advanced?"

"She says I've almost mastered it."

"Almost!? Frag! If a virus approaches do the slide as late as possible, don't let it know you're going low. And keep the speed up for when you're vertical again. Got that?"

"Yes."

MEH looks around, "We've got to get moving, no knowing how long that USB storage will be docked."

"Do you think GEO will make it?"

MEH gets back up from the riding stance. "You've seen GEO?"

"Yes."

"How do you know it's him?"

"Because that's who he said he was?"

LEO laughs, "A lot of programs say they're GEO. They have only one agenda."

MEH shakes her head, "Interfacing."

"He's not like the others. He's been protecting me for many cycles."

"Has he? Where is he now then?"

"He said he had to get a disc, important data he had to get to the USB port. He'll meet us there."

"Don't get your hopes up, he'll probably be a no show."

"What is a no show?"

"Not arriving. We've got to go, follow me."

They meet a few anti-virus programs in the first quarter, manage to curve past them with ease. One fires his lightning rod in time but it doesn't have the range needed to get them, instead arcing down to ground. The frequency of the program appearances grows rapidly. "I have a bad feeling about this LEO!"

"No turning back MEH, they're growing in numbers behind us too!"

"Accelerate!"

Three quarters along the power line a virus appears further down the track.

"FRAG! Get ready to slide! ... NOW!"

The three drop the bikes into a sideways slide, as close to horizontal as they can get. 

The virus reaches out and manages to get ISO's foot with one of it's legs, "MEH! LEO!"

"Frag!"

The virus is tracking their moves, not letting go.

"I can't shake it off!"

The things arms are thrashing about, trying to get the other two.

"My foot is going red!"

"Frag! This isn't in the .."

"Help me!"

"LEO, do something!"

"Like what!"

"Anything!"

"My leg is turning red!"


	46. Chapter 46

There's a flash of light as a bright white disc slices through the arm, continues in a wide arc up into the sky. With half a leg lost the virus flies away as programmed.

"Thanks!"

"It wasn't me."

"Greetings Programs!"

"GEO!"

"This is him?"

"Yes LEO this is GEO RGE, look at his rendering."

"What are you doing racing down an open power rail like this? You're visible from so much of the grid!"

"You had a better route?"

"Until I spotted everything converging on you."

"And how where you planning to travel?"

GEO points to the sky, "In that!"

"You have a ship?"

"Yes. I did a trade."

MEH helps pry the virus's claw of ISO's ankle. "For what?"

"My services."

"What services?"

"I upgraded the resolution of the End Of Line bar staff."

"The legends say the program with that gift looks deep into the heart of a program and only ups the resolution if he finds them worthy. And in all the cycles only the Sirens have been upgraded in that way."

"True."

"And your saying you've done all the EOL staff?"

"I have."

"Why so many at once?"

"I don't plan to be coming back."

"You're heading for the Port?"

"Yes. That USB Storage will be departing soon and I plan to be on it."

"Can you take ISO with you?"

"It would be my pleasure.." he holds out a hand.

"GEO, you told me not to touch."

"I wanted to get to know you properly. Not have something distort your views."

ISO takes his hand.

"Now let's see if we can get rid of that red."

"Oh my user!" exclaims LEO. "Look MEH, the pixels in ISO's foot are smoothing!"

"He's GEO for sure, no other program can do that."

MEH looks around, "I'll be right back, keep an eye out for anti-virus." she walks to the edge of the power rail and pulls her disc from her back, throws it at the wall with all her might. She picks up one of the broken fragments and heads back. "My user! GEO, she's beautiful!"

ISO takes the fragment. "GEO, you've reprogrammed me?"

He shakes his head, "No, no, it's all you, all I did was to bring out the beauty from within. I just turned up your resolution, nothing more. Let's get to the port."

"I'm afraid. What will happen?"

"If the data on my disc is true you'll get to have a real body in the users world. As beautiful as you appear now."

"And we'll be together?"

"If you'd like that?"

"I'd like that a lot!" she throws her arms around him. "My lovely GEO."

George sees Mattie in her MEH persona pull a fist pump and smiles.

"In the users world you'll need a name. And I have a suggestion, feel free to come up with another. Isobel."

MEH looks understandably surprised, GEO, George, was off script.

LEO spins around at the sound of lightning. "GEO, you've got to go, anti-virus are approaching. We'll stay and keep their attention."

"Good luck!"

"You too!"

~~~

Mattie pulls the visor up. "Mia, if you tell me that wasn't perfect even I'll blow a polyfuse!"

"It was flawless Mattie."

"Honestly?"

"If something was wrong I'd tell you."

"Great, we left George to.. George? Everything okay?"

"Done! She's in USB storage with me."

"Already, we only just left?"

"With my fab-ulous guests out of the system I was able to up the clock rate."

"Wouldn't she have sensed something?"

"She did, but I had a noise play and set off ground tremors, said the storage was leaving dock."

"Wouldn't you have missed it?"

George smiles and looks around the room, "Where is your key ring?"

"In my bag, why?"

"Look at the length of the contacts. Then imagine the key is a ship the size of several sky scrapers."

Mattie does so. "I see now, they'd take a good while to disconnect."

"Exactly!"

"Cool. So now we go see Harun?"

George has the biggest smile his synthetic face muscles will allow. "We do."


	47. Chapter 47

"Good afternoon sir, I'm George Millican, I'm here to see Harun Khan."

"I'm sorry sir, the whole design team have been suspended pending the results of our internal investigation."

"You're frigging kidding me!"

"So sorry."

"How long before he's back?"

"If he's back. It could be a few weeks."

"Weeks! Do you know who we are?"

"Your friend said he was George."

"The first post-human synth. And I'm Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins."

"That may well be but it won't change the fact that none of the design team are here."

"For frags sake, come on George, let's see him at home."

"They've been banned from seeing any customers."

"I'm a friend, have known him since school, this was a social call."

"Why would you see him here?"

"Because he's always frigging working! And who's fault is that eh? His or Persona's?"

"I couldn't say."

"No, course not, you lot keep giving them insane targets to meet to earn their commissions. That's how these things usually work isn't it?"

"I couldn't .."

"Couldn't say, yes, I heard you the first time. Come on George, let's get out of this high tech sweat shop."

"Mrs Elster-Hawkins, we're far from.."

"Really? Maybe you need an independent investigation into your business practices? Good day sir!"

Back in the car Mattie thumps the dash. "Those wankers! They have the designers working all the hours they can then impose stupid rules to justify cutting the commission they hand over. I told Harun to get out, he doesn't know what to move to next."

"We could become a Persona rival."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I've been doing some research. Persona only got exclusive rights for ten years. That's long expired. Danny's ordered his SMT equipment, and the sintering machine. The only tech we don't have yet is making the skin. That's pretty advanced stuff, embedding all the many micro sensors for touch."

"But not impossible?"

"No, but very specialist."

"Who makes the equipment for Persona? Surely they don't manufacture that themselves?"

"No, they don't. And with the rights expired we could get our own."

"Lets get back to the office and make some calls."


	48. Chapter 48

"How much! That can't be right, just for a skinning machine? .. It does? .. Okay. I'll let the team know, will call back this afternoon." Mattie puts down her phone and stares at it.

Danny gives up waiting for the news. "So how much do they want?"

"Eleven MILLION pounds!"

Danny's eyes almost pop out of his head, "SHIT! How do they justify that!"

George nods, "Supply and demand. They know what a synth sells for, want a slice. It didn't cost David, Edwin and I anywhere near that much to make ours. But it took us a year and a half."

"We don't want to wait a year and a half!"

"I know Danny. We need a plan B."

"C, D and E."

George smiles. "Thanks for the comment. Great idea seeder!"

"Really? Why?"

"Parts donation. We could find a few discarded synths at recycle centres or smash clubs."

Leo leans over to see George, "I still have a load in my shipping container."

"Yes, you've mentioned a shipping container, where is it?"

"Hidden around the back. A lot of foliage and small trees surround it now, which is probably why you've not noticed it. Assuming you've taken a stroll back there."

"I haven't. Great! We'd carefully take all of the sensors out, test them, rewire them into a new skin. And that might leave some spare parts for Florence."

"Who?"

"Niska, she's got it in her head that she needs to save unhealthy synths."

"Oh. That could keep her very busy. And where do you get a new skin from? You don't want it looking like the twins."

George looks down towards the babies.

"Not those twins. Paul and The Visionary."

"We make one. I have the formula for the mix in a folder at home. We'd need to make a machine to do all the careful parts placing and wiring within the moulds. And we need to make a machine to make a mould."

Danny does a celebratory chair spin, "Parts placing, got one. The snake mount."

"I'm not sure it has the accuracy we need Danny."

"The main snake body, no. The head gives the fine grain accuracy. The pick and place machine could help with testing them. And I could scale up the 3D printer with new rods to make a body to cast a mould around. Printed in sections. Harun could perfect the print once the bits are stuck together."

George does a slow turn around the room to see them all, "I do love you kids! What do you think? DC Synthetics?"

Danny shakes his head, "No, we need a trading name, DC gives me too much credit for your lot's work."

Leo grins, "Work. Do you remember that homework of Mattie's that helped save me from the kidnapping?"

Danny has a look of concentration, trying to recall the facts, the grin is returned, "Awesome! Sentinel Synthetics."

Mattie nods, "I had thought of mentioning it when you were looking for a name for the building."

"Sentinel House. Awesome. Why didn't you mention it?"

"There are several firms using the name already."

"But none make synths. It fits with Tron too! We could make a Gem model. If you've all been listening to Peggy's investment advice you should be set for life. So the profits from the first model after Quorra will be plowed back into making better tools, get the production line faster. Harun, how do you fancy working with us instead of Persona?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"I'd love to. Though I have promised to make one of the engineering team a synth."

"Do you think he'd be happy with a Gem?"

"Yes."

"Done. I'll get the paperwork, you're in."


	49. Chapter 49

The whole family are over to see, the big event set to coincide with film night.

"George, how long does the mould take to set?"

"Not long at all Sophie."

"The box looks very scary."

"I know, inspired by a nasty invention from the dark ages. An iron maiden."

"Is that what the band took their name from?"

"Possibly Toby, I don't know. But the nails in ours are blunt head end inwards. And they wont touch the print. They'll help hold the mould material in place. By making a rough wooden shape like that we need less mould material and it will cure faster."

Head tilt time. "Cure?"

"Set solid. Well as solid as it gets."

"Not solid solid?"

"No Sophie, we'd not get the mould apart if it set that solid."

"Why?"

"Imagine someone poured material down your throat and it set solid like a rock. Would you be able to pull it out?"

"No, it would be curved here and straight all the way down here."

George watched her hand move. "Exactly, a very good understanding of the problem Sophie."

"I do biology at school."

"Excellent. Maybe you could be a synth designer when you're older."

"What are the pipes for?"

"To make sure the mix is pumped into all the openings. She's going to be the first synth with a built in food processor from day one. We need to be able to link things up inside."

"Cool. Does yours work okay?"

"Wonderfully Sophie. Thanks again for fitting it Fred and Gesha."

"You're welcome George. We're looking forward to fitting each others."

Joe shakes his head, "I'm feeling extra extra guilty for my past actions. Sorry."

Mia gives him a glance but says nothing.

Laura smiles at Mia, George reads her expression as 'Let him stew.'

Sophie looks around the workshop, "So this is the outside mould, what goes inside? Do you make another?"

"No, we'll fit and wire the sensors, put Isobel inside the mould, connect everything and cast the skin."

"You fit the sensors before putting her in?"

"Yes. Hence the sensor stacking Danny's pick and place machine was doing all day long for weeks. It's why they were nicknamed Dolly Mixtures. The tiny thin foam block in front of the sensor dissolves in the mix, leaving the sensor a few microns below the surface of the skin."

"You're talking about the square one?"

"Yes."

"I like the jelly ones best."

"Me too!"

George sees Laura roll her eyes.

"I did as a fab and I still do."

Mattie copies her sister's head tilt, "Is the block dissolving what makes it look like the skin has pours?"

"Yes. A very welcome side effect that we discovered quite by accident. Then every fifth one gets a tiny fake hair. I'm going to patent it. Our small Persona rival will have something unique. Our first synth will be able to feel a gentle breeze on their skin. Feel the breath of a partner before a kiss."

"Frigging hell, that's special, there must be millions of the things. How do you link them all up?"

"There are three trillion pours in the average human body. But we lower that count in a synth, considerably. They're linked with a nervous system a bit like a humans, a high speed serial bus like I2C. Only ours runs far faster and each chip can store a little data. Didn't your professor cover that?"

"I expect so, I probably forgot, half asleep."

"Mia getting all her root code in the network of sensors would have been relatively easy. Translating herself in such a way she could get back out, that's the miracle."

Joe stands closer and peers inside, "How many synths can you make with the mould?"

"One. That's one of the reasons why a bespoke synth is so expensive."

Max frowns, "They got at least two out of mine, or I'm mass produced."

"Having one of these moulds survive intact after the first skin casting is almost unheard of. That makes you rather special Max, the gods must have been looking down on you."

Max's smile gets impossibly wide, George watches a tear well up in Leo and Mattie's eyes. Had there been some religious link? "Harun if you could help with the next step, we'll meet everyone in the auditorium."

"Can't we watch George?"

Harun shakes his head, "Sorry Sophie, we need total concentration or we'll mess up the mould and have to start again from scratch. I'm sure Joe wouldn't want to spend another two weeks hammering in nails again."

"Too right there! My wrists still need a cold pack in the evening. Come on gang, let's give them some space."

The two watch everyone leave and close the door.

"Thanks for the comments Harun, I really didn't want Sophie to see how the print is suspended in the mould."

"It took me a while to get over it." The two get the print in place, start clamping the sections together. "Have you picked the hair yet?"

"Not yet."

"Good. I've been making some improvements, I'll show you my designs after the film."

"Excellent, thank you."

With the last bolt down tight George goes to hand Harun the control to the pump.

He shakes his head. "This should be your job."

"I'd rather you did it, if you don't mind."

"No, it should be you George."

"Imagine snogging your own daughter."

"Ah, you want her to be my creation not yours?"

"Bingo!"

Harun shakes his head and laughs, "Go on then, give me the controls."


	50. Chapter 50

With the messy gloop injected into the mould the two join the family for a screening of The Shoreshank Redemption. It's the first film George has watched with them that isn't full of guns and explosions. His daughter had saved him a seat between Odi and herself. "More pop-corn Dad?"

"Oo, yes please Nis."

"Sweet, salted or both?"

"Both please." A bag is passed. "Thanks."

Harun's got a front row seat to Niska's left, purely by coincidence immediately in front of Mattie.

When a quiet moment comes up she leans forwards, "How's Matia?"

George can hear every whisper.

"Good thanks."

"You should bring her over next time."

"You're winding me up. You hated her."

"I'm cool now I got used to Scarlett. But if she tries to copy my moves or pass herself off as me I'll mash her face in."

"Ha ha, the old Mattie is still in here. Don't worry I deleted that routine and data, had her watch a load of porn films instead." He gets a slap to the back of the head, "calm down! I was joking!"

"When I said mash her face, I wasn't."

George turns to see her and smiles.

"Sorry George."

"Don't mind me, it's interesting to see your many sides."

"Shh!"

"Shh yourself knob cock!"

There's laughter from most of the family, eventually Mattie joins in.

With the end credits rolling George turns to Toby, "Nice choice, I really enjoyed that!"

Sophie jumps to her feet, knocking Toby's half empty popcorn onto Holly-Anne's lap. "Oops sorry! Is the mould ready do you think George?"

"Yes Sophie, shall we take a look?"

"Please!"

"I think we better get Henry over first, leave a clean auditorium for Danny."

"Henry?"

"The hoover."

"The one with the funny eyes?"

"Yes."

"I'll get it!"

Mia offers to help.

"My mess, my fun letting Henry snort it all up."

"Okay little mouse. I'll just watch."

Five minutes later Leo crosses his arms, looks at the clean rows, "You don't need to do the whole auditorium Sophie, just the area you were in."

"Almost done!"

"People are waiting."

"Ten seconds!"

"10.. 9.. 8.. 7.. 6.. 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.."

"Finished!"


	51. Chapter 51

Sophie looks at the thin strings of pink material coming out of a number of points around the mould. "It looks hairy. Why is it like that?"

"Tiny holes let the pressure out a bit. They also tell us that the material is flowing into all the places we want."

"It's quite soft."

"Yes. Now we undo the bolts and very carefully pull the panel with a big A forward ever so gently and slowly."

"Why?"

"I need to cut it open. We use a very VERY sharp knife for this, so no making me jump please."

The mould is slowly and carefully taken apart.

They all watch Harun put down the knife.

"Now what do you do?"

"We carefully use part of the mould to make another inverse one, spray a release agent onto it, do some casting with water dissolvable foam, then .. well long story short we end up with soft foam blocks in key places for hair, instead of the wood.

"Why do all that?"

"To install the hair. Each strand is inserted individually. Scalp and eyebrows. Eyelashes are done later."

"Why not do it all later?"

"It's not stuck on like a wig. Each strand will be held by the skin cast around it."

"So the hair looks natural?"

"That's it. Each is applied into the foam with a special needle, the root is left floating a few millimetres from the foam surface, when the skin is cast it flows around the root holding it in place."

"That's a LOT of work!"

"Yes Sophie, which is why we should be paid well."

"Aren't you?"

"Yes and no."

"So what next?"

"George needs to confirm the hair style he'd like her to have and I get to work. I'll start in the morning."

"Couldn't you have used foam for the whole thing? Skipped the wood?"

"No Joe, the foam isn't good with large volumes, the head is as far as we can push it."


	52. Chapter 52

The next morning Sophie is being her inquisitive self. "If you're going to give her a haircut why did George need to say what style?"

"I needed to know what type of hair to use. Fine or thick, colour, glossiness, things like that. Where the parting should fall. If you look at my head really close you'll see the hair comes out at an angle. We replicate that."

"Isn't that a bit.. what's the word.. obsessive?"

Harun laughs, "Maybe. But if you want your synth to really really look human it's those ever so tiny details that make the difference. Our brains pick up on the little imperfections very quickly."

"Perfect imperfections. Your dad didn't think you'd be good at anything did he."

He chuckles, "Mattie told you did she?"

"Yes."

"It was true. He's eaten a LOT of humble pie since."

"How long will this take?"

"A couple of days."

"All weekend?!"

George passes Harun another tiny clump of hairs to insert.

"Yes, we'll be here the whole weekend. Slowly inserting these one by one."

"Don't you get bored?"

"Sometimes. But when you have to concentrate for so long that's the least of the problems."

"What's the worst?"

"Cramp in my left hand. Then back and arm ache."

"Couldn't you get a synth to do it?"

"In the factory a machine does it. A very expensive one. But this is a special one for George."

"Why is the mould opened out like that? It looks weird."

"Like pealing an orange and keeping it in one bit? The sensors. They all connect on the spine. If you cut it in half, had a front and back how would you join them up?"

"Oh, I see, so it all folds around. Very clever. Well Mum says I've got the attention span of a gnat so I better do something else before I blow my cover." she gives them both a wink and skips off.

George turns to Harun, "I've heard a lot of the Elster's and Hawkin's music, what would you listen to?"

"Me? Jazz."

George looks stunned. "I'd not have guessed. Why Jazz?"

"Something different."

"Glad to hear it, let me stream some." Music starts.

"Is that coming from you?"

"The Internet to me to the WiFi speaker, yes."

"Sweet. Can't the Sonos play direct?"

"Of course, but where's the fun in that?"


	53. Chapter 53

Late Sunday evening Danny, Leo, Mattie, Toby, Holly-Anne and Emily come into the workshop having seen the lights are still on.

Emily does her best Spock impression, "Fascinating! How much more have you got to do?"

Harun looks at Georges outstretched palm, "Eight more eyebrow hairs and we're done."

"Good. We were going to nip to the pub for a cheeky pint. Want to come?"

"I shouldn't drink alcohol, but yes, thanks. My body needs something to help relax."

"Not doing joints anymore?"

"Hell no, gave them up years ago when I read about some of the long term side effects."

"You, read?"

"Yeah, shocking isn't it!"

~~~

The barman is creased up, finding it hard to stand and clutching his belly, "Danny mate, I swear your pal George just did another dragon impression! Ask him to stop before I have an accident please!"

"George? Got a bit of a stomach problem?"

"It would appear that I blew a bit of smoke. No flames that I could see."

"Maybe doing shots wasn't the best of ideas?"

"Maybe not. And doing it on an empty processor wasn't very smart."

Emily is roughing out a sketch, "Do you think it did any damage?"

"I have no idea. I can use an endoscope in the morning."

"You've got one?"

"A tiny USB one, yes."

"What do you plug it into?"

"A laptop, not myself. I've no exposed USB ports."

Leo whispers to Emily, quickly borrows her pen and draws on his finger tip. "Imagine if you could add a camera anywhere George." he points around with the seeing finger.

Holly-Anne giggles, "I'd have eyes in the back of my head!"

Toby does a shudder, "So you can see me when..." his voice tails off.

Mattie bursts into fits of laughter, "Knob cock, you were going to say something like doggy style weren't you!"

He pulls a disgusted face, "No!"

"Yes you were!"

"No I wasn't!"

"Admit it!"

Holly-Anne waves a finger, "It's partially true. Check out The Hinge."

"You what?"

Holly-Anne whispers a URL into Mattie's ear. A moment later George smiles at the cartoon content and does a slow head shake.

Mattie frowns, "George? Did you just hear that and visit the site?"

"Hear what?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

He sighs and blows more smoke, "Yes. Sorry. You should all know my hearing is insanely good."

"At least your ISO Isobel won't be stuck with just the missionary."

"Mattie!"

George watches her turn very slowly and robotically to Leo. "Would you like some again? Or would you like the current ban to stay enforced?"

"That's a daft question."

"Well don't be such a frigging prude."

Leo pulls a face and gets a laugh back from his wife, good, it was all light hearted banter.

George smiles too, "Frigging and prude. Not two words I'd expected to hear in the same sentence."

Danny quaffs his pint, "Since we're being so open about the subject at the moment, have you got all the hair done? Or will she have a Full Brazilian?"

Mattie shakes her head, "Is it true you men think about sex an average of nineteen times a day?"

Harun frowns, "Nineteen? Where'd you get that number from?"

Danny is nodding, "Yeah, I thought women believed it to be far more."

"Ohio State University clicker tests."

"It will depend on the person."

Emily pouts at Danny, "Yes Dan, you're probably WAY more than nineteen."

Holly-Anne wraps an arm around Toby, and tickles his ear lobe with her tongue, "The lads are from the same mould so I reckon it's much higher than that!"

"You think of it more than me!"

She goes to say something, stops, looks at the ceiling and starts counting on the fingers on her free hand.

"Am I seeing things or are you counting in binary?"

"Yes George, I watched Sophie doing it a few months back, she taught me how."

"Wonderful!"

The counting resumes, "You could be right there Obi."

"Really?"

"Why not Mattie? Why should they have all the fun?"

"Um.."

"I'm a one man woman before any of you start getting the wrong idea."

Emily cuddles Danny, "Same here!"

"It's hard not to think of it with all the requests I'd get at work."

They all turn to see Harun.

"What sort of requests?"

"For custom synths, what else?"

"So you're not the Persona London gigolo?"

"Har har Mattie, very funny. I keep getting requests to make out of proportion synths. 18+ models if you know what I mean."

"Of course we know. Accepted any such requests yet?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Do you have any idea how long it takes to do a custom synth at a Persona Lab? Ages!"

"So how did you rush out Scarlett so quick?"

"I already had the design done remember? Matia? I just needed to adjust the skin tone pigmentation mix, hair, eye colour and submit the build request."

George senses his head mimic the move he'd seen the youngest Hawkins do. "Sorry, Danny, what you mentioned a moment ago, a full Brazilian?"

Mattie tuts, taps away on her phone, turns it to show an image from search results.

"Oh, pubic hair. Do you ladies really style it? No, don't answer that. From that selection, The Bermuda Triangle. And before any of you snigger, no, I don't want to get lost in there!"

Toby does an impression of Arthur, "Too late, buckle up please ladies and gentlemen and assume the crash position, not only are we out of strawberry ice lollies we're out of fuel over the Bermuda Triangle. We're GOING DOWN!"

Emily and Holly-Anne laugh the most. Mattie is laughing too, shaking her head, "No prizes for working out what two digit number is YOUR favourite KC."

"Cabin Pressure! How wonderful!"

Toby's face goes from jovial to seriously puzzled, "You know it George?"

"Do I Toby! I'm a big fan of BBC Radio Comedy, a great way to unwind after a long stressful day! I loved the radio comedy especially as you can do other things while listening. I had Odi start all my tape and video recordings, loved the Pythons and Spike too. He was great."

"Dad said his father used to let him watch Spike when he was younger."

"Such a shame we didn't talk openly about mental health back then."

"Why d'you say that George?"

"He suffered for years, had severe bipolar disorder for most of his life. At least ten serious mental breakdowns apparently."

"LAST ORDERS PLEASE!"

Danny gets his wallet out, "Shit, that's rough. One more?"

Everyone nods and necks what little is left in their glasses. Emily rips several pages out of her pad, starts ripping them in half, then half again, repeating until they're quite small.

"Didn't your sketch work out Emily?"

"Yes George, I've still got it, it gave me an idea. Can you turn your hearing off and close your eyes?"

"Yes? Why?"

"Just do it please, face into the pub first though."

"Why?"

She kisses him on the cheek, "Spoilers George, we don't like them. Be patient."

He closes his eyes and thinks about the virtual world he was creating back at the office.

Not quite ten minutes later he feels a tap on the shoulder. He opens his eyes to see Emily putting scraps of paper in her pocket, one at a time. He turns to face the group again as Emily walks around to stand next to Danny.

"Are you doing some mental maths Emily?"

"Yes George."

"Bravo! A human that doesn't depend on a calculator. So what are you doing?"

"As you're wearing SilLoe clothes, looking rather sharp, and we'd been talking earlier about snog, marry, avoid it made me think of a slightly similar show. The one where people get makeovers to make themselves look younger. I've just had the rest of the pub guess your age."

George felt new emotions. Young or old? What would they say? If he'd been human he'd have a serious case of the butterflies.

"And the results?"

"Sitting comfortably?"

"Yes." There's a long pause. "Come on before I blow a fuse in excitement!"

"Thirty four."

"No way!"

"Yes way! That was the average. With a max to min deviation of seven years."

"That's not possible!"

"Why not? No grey hairs, thinning, glasses, wrinkles, shakes, beer belly, old man clothes."

"Thirty. Four. I haven't been that young in more years than I like to admit. Thanks Emily. And thanks Mattie and Harun."

"You're welcome. I'll print you a rebirth certificate tomorrow. And we can celebrate all the thirty fourth birthdays to come. You'll have to state your age as thirty four plus one next birthday."

"Why not thirty five?"

"Toby? Really? Fifty years from now he'll still look the same."

George closes his eyes and smiles.

"What's the top thought getting CPU time now then?"

"Just a memory from Odi Mattie."

"A good one by the looks of it, do share."

"I'm not sure I should."

"Why?"

"The content."

"Seriously? We're all adults. Well I can't speak for knob cock, he's still practicing."

Holly-Anne giggles, "And practice makes perfect."

"Tobs, perfect? That's an oxymoron!"

"Takes a moron to know one slap chops!"

"Come on George, spill the beans."

"Mary, Odi and I were out shopping. She knew how I loved my audio comedy, spotted a Derek and Clive LP called Come Again. As Odi and I were close by she said she didn't take that close a look just bought it quick. It was a birthday present surprise you see. She put it on the record player as we sat down to afternoon tea and cake, got a surprise alright!"

"The link to earlier conversations was birthdays and comedy?"

"There was a third, strawberries. And forth, the Bermuda Triangle. One of the sketches was about them getting lost in Jone Crawford's. Derek and Clive were characters of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, they got drunk, out of their heads and recorded the album. Definitely not for minors it was so obscene." George lowers his head, looks sadly at the floor. "It only got the one playing. Not even that, we stopped it before we got to side B. Partly because it was so rude, but mostly because they used the C words so much."

"Words plural?"

"The four letter one. And Mary was diagnosed and told she had cancer a month later."

"Oh, I'm sorry George, that must have been horrible!"

"Yes Leo. It started with cervical cancer, so the record got smashed and thrown away with the rubbish. The mood in the house changed from that day on. I played my music, avoided playing anything else. To this day I don't know what made Odi do it, Mary had passed away a number of years before, but he started recording Cabin Pressure and handing me tapes."

"You frowned when you said 'I don't know' why?"

"Ha, Peggy has trained you well. Odi said Mary had told him to do it. Which is impossible. That said, when Karen shot me and I was close to death he said Mary was in the next room waiting for me."

"Weird."

"Yes Emily. Very." He watches Leo put his phone away, stand and smile.

"George, thanks for being so open about it. It's good to talk. It's given me one of Mattie's roosters."

"How so?"

"Synths use a fraction of their computing power in every day activities right?"

"Yes?"

"The Folding@home software from Stanford University uses free computing time to simulate protein folding, looking for cures to all sorts of human problems. Including cancer. We could translate the code into something a synth could run, ask all of those with The Gift to donate some CPU cycles in return. The code you helped reveal could have started a chain of events that end in the revealing of a cancer cure."

He stands and throws his arms around Leo, gives him a long hug. "In the memory of Mary, please make it so!"

"Going a bit Jean-Luc on us George?"

"Yes Holly-Anne, out of all the Star Trek films I've watched with you ladies Picard is my favourite. And Data. And I'm a next generation. Half a million Datas running code to find a cure. How wonderful!"

Danny passes pints along, "The taxis home will be here in half an hour. Cheers gang, especially to our new member George."

"Cheers!"

George starts rocking ever so slightly and tapping his foot, the pub's jukebox having changed tracks.

"George?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know you're tapping your foot?"

"Yes."

"Blimey Mattie, he likes your music!"

"I know Holla, he's a changed man for sure. What makes you like this one?"

"Sandra said it was mine, for the moment. There's the bike theme that fits."

"There's trouble! I saw that brief look, don't mess with Sandra, Silas will have you shut down and in parts bins before you can count to ten."

"Silas isn't like that is he?"

Leo looks deadly serious, "He's a reformed man with the new Sandra in his life. But if you upset the balance I'd put good money down that he'd be back to his old ways faster than your core can run a print 'Hello World'. As Mattie says, don't mess with his Sandra."

"She wanted to be the first to head bump after she's booted."

"I'd find some excuse for her not to. She's lovely, but can be a bit of a flirt. Be friendly, but always imagine a line not to be crossed. For all our sakes."

"Alright, I'll keep the relationship at arms length."


	54. Chapter 54

Monday morning started late for the fabs. George sat outside DC House waiting for signs of life. Danny, the ever inventive man that he was, had got rolls of very narrow low adhesion Kapton tape. The pick and place machine had put each Dolly Mixture on the sticky side, a 3D printed contraption then advanced it ever so slightly. The biggest challenge had been punching a tiny hole for the fine hair in such a way that it wouldn't be pulled from the sensor. The new head on the snake had enhanced cameras to see the tiny things up close. Silas and Toby had apparently popped in to help create a DAZ3D Python script, quite appropriate, to control the head and place the parts. It would do so in a varying density, governed by shading added to the model used to make the print for the mould. It had a new mechanism that took the rolls of tape and released the sensors by folding the tape back on itself. Inspired by a simple box of sticky hole punch reinforcement rings.

As they'd stripped two donor synths of sensors they had more than enough. The synths were badly smashed up, beyond repair so George wouldn't feel guilty at dismantling them. Toby said they'd done a test run with the snake, were surprised to find it could do fifteen a second without problems until the mount needed to move, at which point everything paused for a fraction of a second. An average of twelve a second. The ten million sensors would take ten days to place. Emily, thankfully, had raised the question of wiring. The head was modified again to wire as it went. Without that the whole process might have taken another ten days. Maybe even more as the accuracy needed to solder on the ultra thin wires once it had let go of the Dolly Mixture was far higher than if it did it all in one operation.

That was what he'd learnt in the Taxi van back from the pub. He couldn't wait to see it and get started. He planned to sit with the machine twenty four seven making sure it had a constant supply of tape rolls. And check that nothing was going wrong, be able to correct things quickly if something did go awry. They had several rolls done, Danny and Emily would do shifts to help keep the pick and place machine going, they'd have a steady supply for the snake. His circuits buzzed with the excitement.

A disheveled and nightgown wrapped Emily opens the front door, "Morning George, a gorgeous day for Gorgeous George The Dragon to start the next phase of Isobel."

He smiles, "Thank you kindly young miss."

The smile is returned, "You're welcome YOUNG dragon. Danny says Sophie has agreed to Ted and Wall-e acting as security guards outside the workshop to ensure no kids come nosing around."

"Thanks. Is that likely to be a problem?"

"Curious little minds. It's a risk. We've got a full auditorium after lunch for one of Mattie's teaching talks. Joe said he'll drop them off after the school run."

"Thanks."

"Leo's going to pop over with the kids later too, so you may get an audience."

"Great, I'll enjoy the company."

"I'll let you into the workshop, then go shower. Want any breakfast?"

"I'm good thanks."

"No more dragon smoke or flames since the pub?"

"No, I'm staying well away from highly combustible drinks."


	55. Chapter 55

George loaded the CAD model and zoomed right in. The myriads of wire routes converging into points that would connect with the spine looked like a superhighway from the grid. He'd been proud of that design, or so Odi's recollection of the stories told him. He'd clearly gone on about it at length as Odi had been able to share a lot of information. That would be a very personal procedure with his new partner, touching her all over to check none of the connections were bad. Doing it with a standard synth wasn't an issue, they booted into manufacturing code first. Isobel would boot straight into her new life. He could have used a similar code, but wanted to do the test with her consent. They'd only touched twice on the grid. Once when he'd held her and upped her resolution. The second time when she'd kissed him soon after and given her thanks.

Inside the room he finds a sheet of A4 with 'READ ME!' written in thick felt pen, a message in Mattie's handwriting below.

'Dear George, turn on this monitor and press play. The video should tell you everything you need to know. See you soon, M."

He chuckled to himself, maybe he should call her that and Danny Q. And Leo 007, which fit in a 7 of 9 way too, being part flesh and bone, part machine.

The video was only 3:57 long and did cover everything. He took the protective wrap off Isobel's mould and set the snake mount up as instructed. With his head close to the new mount he clicked his eyes a couple of times engaging the most powerful macro mode. The tape was loaded correctly, sensor ready to be placed. The two tiny strands of wire we fed through, the solder feed full. He did an alignment test, then a second, a third. The numbers that came back were consistent. He takes a good deep breath, drops macro mode and steps back, tells the machine to start. The head moved to the very tip of Isobel's left big toe and started placing.

It was hypnotic. Toby had told him of the first time he'd seen a 3D printer construct an object, whipping back and forth printing a layer before stepping up one layer thickness to print the next. This was no different. He himself had helped invent this stuff, along with David and Edwin. He expected neither would have seen one being put together like this. This was wonderful. Harun had told him the work became addictive, he could understand why.

"Isobel, you will be the first living person to have been born from Tron Legacy, not just a fantasy of a film maker on celluloid. It's only fitting we have some Daft Punk."

His favourite track Solar Sailor plays out.

He would have lost track of time if it were not for his NTP synced clock. 1:23:07.5838 later there's a click as the door handle is pulled down.

"Hi George? Is it safe to come in?"

"Ah, Joe, of course, please do."

"Only someone's taped a big black and yellow sign on the door with 'DANGER! KEEP OUT! CHEMICALS THAT WILL MELT YOUR FACE STORED IN HERE!"

George applauded Joe's theatrical delivery, "Very funny Joe!"

"No, George, I'm serious, come see."

"Oh my! I wonder where that came from? It wasn't on the door when I entered the room and I didn't hear anyone moving around outside. Although my mind was probably on Isobel."

"Hmm. Women can have that effect. Mattie said you'd have instructions for these two?" he points towards the floor.

George had totally missed that Ted and Wall-e were patiently waiting for orders. "I'm not sure having a couple of cute robots is a good idea. What if some of the kids want to pick Ted up?"

"WHO YOU CALLING CUTE? GET BACK INSIDE! ... How is that for volume and authority George?"

"Ha ha, loud enough Ted, I take my comment back."

Wall-e does a full 360 on the spot. "If they keep advancing I'll give a blast on the fire extinguisher."

"And if that doesn't work?"

Wall-e drops open his crusher door revealing an array of klaxon devices and turns them on.

"JESUS! OKAY WALL-E! WE'VE GOT THE MESSAGE!"

Joe can't talk for the next few seconds, his ears ringing from the noise.

"Is that within health and safety limits? That was bloody painful!"

Wall-e does a eye flex and looks up, "Sound volume drops as per the inverse square law. At the distance they'd be it would be well within limits."

"And just then, this close?"

Silence.

"Thought so. Please don't do that again!"

"Sorry Joe. Are we to guard this door?"

"Correct."

"Okay!" Wall-e starts humming his tune.

"I'll see you later George, I've got to get to the office."

"Thanks for dropping them in."

"No problem. See you later."

George returns to watch the machine do it's work. He watches the head terminate the first of the runs on the very lowest spine connector. So far so good. He watches the head return to the same toe and start another run. It's half way done when there's commotion outside.

"Out of my way you frigging stupid robot! You don't guard the room against people that SHOULD be allowed in! Especially when she's your frigging owner!"

"MY ORDERS WERE TO GUARD THIS DOOR!"

"Don't you dare point that thing at me Wall-e!"

George races to the door, "Guys! Any Elster or Hawkins family members are allowed in!"

"You didn't specify that George."

"I know that, I assumed you'd work that out."

"Garbage in garbage out eh Wall-e?"

"Quite right Ted."

"Frigging hell! When this is done I'm updating your fact stores!"

"Thank you Mattie. That would be nice."

"Guys?"

"Yes George?"

"Can you step aside and let the lady pass?"

"Sorry George! Sorry Mattie!"

She steps inside and closes the door, whispers a countdown from ten. "Sorry about that, in some ways I wish we'd made them sentient, at least you could reason with them properly."

"Silas's code and a good fact store?"

"Yeah. How's Iso coming on? Everything okay?"

"Wonderful thanks. Touch wood it will stay that way. I have a favour to ask."

"Fire away."

"Remember how you stroked my hand and arm, helping me relearn touch when I first powered up?"

"Yes?"

"I'd like Isobel to have a full touch check to see that all of the connections are good before we press the spine connectors into the final locking position."

"And you want me to help how?"

"I thought I should be the one to do it, but I've changed my mind. I'd like a lady to do it. Let me get to know her intimately over time."

"Can't you boot diagnostics first?"

"I'd rather not."

"Why? Wouldn't it make the process easier?"

"I wanted her consent first."

"Very admirable of you George."

"New body, still old school thinking."

"Okay. How about Nis, Emily, Holla an I dress up as the Sirens? Get her out of damaged games clothes into new? Ems is dying to Cosplay Gem at the next comic convention, we'd need the outfits anyway."

"She's supposed to wake in our world not back on the grid."

Mattie rubs her chin thoughtfully, "She comes out of USB storage straight into the workshop? How about we tell her she's in another simulation. In the real world, with physical materials to look like the grid to lessen the shock on her systems? We could have the lights down so what she sees can be slowly increased?"

"What a wonderful idea! I'm so glad you're here. Do you know Ada Lovelace in the 1800's was the first computer programmer, known for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine? In 1952, Grace Hopper created the first compiler for a computer programming language. Mia worked out how to translate her root code into sensory data, and you my dear worked out what she'd done. And led that team to create such a great system to help Leo and all those soldiers. And to think David and Edwin didn't want women on the team. What a mistake!"

"Thanks George, from you that means a lot."

"They say great minds think alike. I disagree. Women think differently. And we missed a big opportunity there. It's a good mix of ideas that makes a team work. And three men thinking alike can make for slow problem solving."

"Would you mind me quoting you? There are some girls in my next class that could do with the boost."

"Please do!"

"Awesome. I better go, get everything ready for class. It will be the biggest yet."

"Good luck M."

"Thanks."

"Seen Q?"

"Pardon? .. Oh right! Not yet, Ems said he's raced into town, the pick and place machine blew a fuse."


	56. Chapter 56

The next knock at the door is Danny and Emily with more tape.

"No idea why the thing blew a fuse. I cleared the shop of them just in case. Everything going okay?"

"Perfect, come see."

After watching it for a while Emily yawns, "I'm going to have a shower and head to bed. I'm knackered and doing the night shift."

"If we brought the machine down here couldn't I keep an eye on it?"

"Then you'd not be watching Isobel."

"At least bring it down so you're not sat up there alone."

She looks around the room.

Danny reads her mind, "I'll bring a sofa in."

George watches the next set of traces work their way up Isobel's leg. Or what will become the outside of it, the sensory array just inside the surface. Danny and his father bring in a sofa, then a workbench and the pick and place machine.

"How do you stop your mind from wandering George?"

"I don't. I can set the processor affinity of the things going on in my mind. So wandering and wondering don't distract me in the way they might you."

"I wish I could do that."

"Careful what you wish for. Leo might hear and do an upgrade."

The two men talk about love and life for hours, watch their machines do their thing. 

There's a knock on the door. "George?"

"Come in Leo!"

"We've got lunch, can you open the door?"

Danny frowns at George, mouths 'We?' opens the door to see Leo with a tray and the twins. Both on their feet and holding a trouser leg each.

"Hungry Dan?"

"Thanks Leo, very. Come on in."

The five of them watch the machines for a while. The twins are watching the snake and head bumping each other.

"What do you think they're saying Leo?"

"No idea George, they're keeping power low and conversation private."

"Kids, are you talking about the technology going into Isobel?"

Matthew turns and gives their yes sign.

"Do you see any problems with it?"

Leona turns and smiles, "No Georg." she frowns, "Georg.. Geeeorge George." a big smile comes across her face, "Matthew Dan Leo Leona George!"

Leo can't contain himself and grabs his laughing daughter for a cuddle, "Brilliant Leona! We know you can talk inside your head, talking with your mouth will let Mummy, Sophie, Toby, Grandma, Grandpa, Holly-Anne and Emily join in your conversations."

"And Peggy."

"Clever girl!"

Danny leaves his machine to crouch down by Matthew, "Don't go doing Stewie Griffin impressions little fella. That will freak Ems out. She loves those cartoons."

"Okay Daniel."

Dan looks at Leo, somewhat surprised. "Did I just hear right or is my mind playing tricks?"

"Michael Caine impression? No, you heard right."

"How the f? His vocal cords shouldn't be able to get that low. And his chest isn't big enough to give that resonance surely?"

"No idea how he does it. Just that he can."

"Since when?"

"The Italian Job screening."

"Blimey. What others can you do kid?"

"I have been, and always shall be, your friend."

George watches Daniel fall backwards onto his bottom in shock.

"Bloody hell! Has Emily seen him do that?"

"Not yet, I don't think so."

"She's going to adore you even more Matt for that. What else can you do?"

Matthew taps his sister on the shoulder and bumps. She turns to face Dan and they hold hands.

There's silence for a few seconds before Matthew growls "Mah Na Mah Na."

"Do do dodo do."

George claps, "Oh my lord! The Muppets! A show Mary and I loved! Don't stop!"

The kids keep them entertained for half an hour before Matthew declares that they're both tired, hungry and want Mummy.

"Mummy's in the lecture hall. You'll have to wait until her break. It shouldn't be long now. Let's go sit in the kitchen and wait."

They exchange pleasantries and leave.

"That was bloody brilliant. I'd love to know how Matt gets such a frequency range. It's not like he's got a folded horn setup like the speakers we use."

George is watching the snake head moving. "I've no idea how he does it either. Dan, take a look for a moment would you please and tell me if you think this is working faster than before?"

Daniel does so, "You're the one with the accurate clock, you must know it is. The system's been touched by a white hat."

"White hat?"

"Friendly hacker. Matthew or Leona, maybe both."

After a moment watching the pick and place machine he shakes his head, "I think they've got to this one too."

Emily and Daniel swapped shifts at 8PM and 8AM for the rest of the week. With the fine tuning the kids had done the snake came to a halt very early Sunday morning and beeped.

"Emily! It's finished!"

"No more tape needed then?"

"No, we're done!"

She does an arms in the air stretch, "Awesome! Now what?"

"We wait until a reasonable hour and phone Harun, ask if he's finished her build."

"Why didn't he assemble everything here?"

"He wanted help from Matia, isn't sure she and Mattie would get on."

"I'm sure Mattie would be fine now, she's comfortable with Scarlett."

"Maybe, maybe not. He didn't want to risk it."

"Ten to three. I'm going to bed, see if I can start getting my body clock back to daylight hours."

George kisses her on the forehead, "Thanks so much for all your help. I'll see you in the morning."


	57. Chapter 57

"This is so much easier than the way we used to do it."

Harun looks at the screen, "How did you do it originally, when you built the first one?"

"It was more like pulling on a lot of long rubber gloves and stockings and glueing them all together." George wriggles his fingers and Isobel's fingers mimic the moves. The arm wasn't attached to anything yet, other than power and a control lead. "This is more like slipping your hand into a nice leather glove." he places the arm in very gently, not wanting to snag any of the wires or sensors. His control of the limb via the WiFi enabled proxy ensured it matched the mould shape perfectly. Harun had used an air brush to paint a thin film over everything to try and protect it, George didn't want to risk any damage.

"Did you remember all of the dissolvable spacers?"

"Yes. triple checked."

He does the same with the other arm and starts wiring and bolting the shoulder assembly together. "I like how you've changed the design so it's all front serviceable. No disrespect but bolt heads under shoulder blades were a pain in the arse for repairs."

"None taken. Edwin didn't want them serviceable. He wanted people recycling and upgrading as often as possible."

"Have you come to a final decision on her skin tone?"

"Yes, the one you marked slight tan."

"I'll get mixing."

"How do Persona get a synth out so fast?"

"Industrial robots. They work a bit like Danny's snake. After I've perfected the template everything is done by machine until the skin is cast. Then I do some work, then another machine does the hair, I do the final styling. Both machines are scary fast. You don't want to get in the cage with them for sure."

"Cage?"

"Safety cage. They have no eyes, no need, everything is where it should be, down to a one hundredth of a millimetre. Each robot lays twenty sensor tapes at a time. Using a tape that's only a few molecules thick and a couple of mill wide. It dissolves like your dolly mixture things but without a trace. With the six robots working together it's all done quite quickly."

"Six? That's a lot of robots."

"Yeah, then consider up to ten synths are being made at the same time. It's quite a production line. And London's nowhere near the biggest."

~~~

News travels fast with their private app. The whole family had asked to be present when the mould was opened. Joe had worked out how to dismantle it so that only her head and shoulders would be seen first, Harun and Silas could work behind closed doors to dress her once Mattie had helped proved all the sensors.

"She's beautiful!"

"Thank you Sophie."

"Watching Harun insert all of the hairs I thought she'd look like she had stuck a finger in a mains socket."

George laughs, "If you'd taken an x-ray before the foam came off that's how she would have looked."

Harun nods, "Remember what I said about hairlines and how hair falls?"

Sophie does a confirmatory nod.

Danny hands George a bag, "Here's the outfit mum made. It should fit like a glove. She used the mould print as a mannequin."

"So that's where it went!"

Emily hands over a cardboard box, "And here are her boots."

"Thanks. All of you. Let's let them get her checked and dressed. Sirens if you could get ready."


	58. Chapter 58

George asks that Mia be in her sister synth outfit when Isobel is powered up, helmet on, looking like she's fresh off the games grid.

George hears the power up sound play through the door, Mattie's voice.

"Greetings Program! Welcome to the real world!"

Isobel screams at her, "He lied! We're back at the entrance to the games grid!"

"No, this is the real world, he wanted you to feel at home."

"You're lying, he's gone, left me, the anti-virus or virus will find me!"

The screaming continues. George races in and touches her chin before she can finish her question, the power down sound plays.

"Dad? Why didn't you relocate her power switch?"

"Relocate? Where?"

"Just inside the mouth. Above the front teeth, like Arnold."

"So she could accidentally power down while eating?"

"Oh."

Harun has joined them, waves a hand to get their attention, "I could change her firmware like I did for Matia?"

"How?"

"Enable the new power option. Have it so the power button only works when another area of the skin is pressed."

"You can do that?"

"In the new M2 series core the power button is just a switch on an IO line. To power up it also flips the state on a gate. To power down the CPU needs to have a pin high too. And a sentient synth can control that pin state. Default is enabled."

"Why would they design that?"

"For you Nis. I told the engineering team how you didn't like the idea of being powered down without your consent."

"How new is the board?"

"Days old."

"Aren't you still banned?"

"Technically yes."

"So how did you get a core? And how can Mashia be running on one?"

"Upgrade. I agreed to make Billy the synth he's been begging me to make him for months."

"At who's cost?"

"His, I'm not a charity."

"How much work will it be?"

"At home, many many months. Probably six. Unless I can borrow your gear?"

"Do it here."

"Wow! Thanks Daniel."

George runs his fingers through Isobel's hair, "That could have gone better. Wipe and copy everything back in. And yes to the firmware option please Harun. But make sure we know how to power her down if take two goes as bad. We'll think about another attempt soon."


	59. Chapter 59

George types a command and starts the code on the server. Looks at the ENTER key. How appropriate.

How to avoid the shock? Get as far away from the grid as possible while staying in the room. He types a message into the app, picks a few recipients and hits send. It was now Monday, he didn't expect much of a response but was pleasantly surprised.

After a lot of friendly disagreement with those that had responded with a visit, Toby sticks both arms in the air, forwards and apart. "ONE WORD!" silence falls. "Swanky!

"Frigging hell! Brilliant idea KC!"

Nis spins around, her eyes wide open, "How long do the food processors take to fit?"

George watches Mia become excited too.

Gesha looks at Fred, "Half an hour. If we have the parts?"

They all turn to look at Danny.

"I've got three made up. Who else wants one?"

Lots of glances are exchanged, Fred turns to Danny, "Ladies first isn't it?"

Gesha gives him a kiss. "Thanks! If you fit mine I'll fit Mia's while you do Niska's."

~~~

Isobel looks around the room, sees some other familiar faces, "NIS, LEO, MEH?"

Mattie smiles, "We're their users."

"Thank your programs for helping me get to the port."

"Sure. We have something for you. A nice dress George helped pick out, a ballgown like ours. But before you change I have a process to perform with you. Alone."

They all step outside. George doesn't want to overhear anything so leads them all to the auditorium after messaging Mattie.

"Dad, okay if we go and get the processor fitted right now?"

"Sure."

She gives him a kiss and grabs Mia's hand, "Thanks, come on, this will change a lot!"

Leo looks at his phone, "No reply from Max, anyone know what he's up to?"

Toby shakes his head, "Not a scooby. Mum and Dad went shopping, hopefully see the message soon.

"Can I have a go in the simulator please Leo?"

"I don't think the machine can be adjusted down small enough. But we'll have a look just incase it can, okay?"

Sophie nods, her face showing disappointment.

"Mattie will be a while. Dan mate, fancy seeing if we can shorten everything enough?"

"Sure. I'll message everyone to meet at mine."

~~~

George watches them get everything ready.

Sophie looks at the rack of equipment. "What will you do with the server now Danny?"

"Probably put it into hibernation when not in use. It draws a hell of a lot of power."

"Couldn't Mattie use it in her lectures? Wired to a 360 projector rather than headset?"

"Maybe. I'll ask."

George looks at Toby, "Does Harun have the app?"

"No."

"He really should be invited, he's worked very hard to help us."

"Message Mattie, she's the only one with his number."

Leo does one more leaver up. "You were lucky. If it wasn't for your last growth spurt that wouldn't have fitted. It's a bit tight around the knees but should be fine. Any pain and yell okay? Don't grin and bear it, we don't want to end up hurting you."

"Okay."

"Close your eyes, pull down the VR headset and open them. You'll be on the grid."

"Okay ... COOL! It's just like the film! It's SO realistic. How does it do that?"

Danny looks at Leo, but replies to Sophie, "Lots and lots and LOTS of maths. A ton of it, so much you can't comprehend how much. It's taking all the best bits from Unreal Engine, Unity, Bryce, DAZ3D, SketchUp, FreeCAD, particle physics simulators, photorealistic rendering code, the inverse kinematics George knows so well and mashing it all together into one massive virtual reality creation and simulation environment."

"Cool!"

"Are you familiar with the expression 'Everything but the kitchen sink'?"

She giggles, "Yes, Dad uses it."

"Well my Dad liked to hide things in his code, something George told me about. So we've hidden a kitchen sink in there."

"Where?"

"You'll have to find it."

"Is there an interface to create bits?"

"Yes, you're in it."

"Huh?"

"There are a few methods, you can ask for a virtual cursor, build things up from simple shapes, we used it for starting some of the buildings. But I think you'd like the one from Mattie's PTSD research the most. You just talk to it."

"How?"

"Start your sentence with Computer to let it know you're talking to it, not a character in the VR."

"Computer I'd like a flower."

"I have over one thousand types of flower in my database. Which would you like?"

"Hehe, you sound like Jarvis. A yellow daffodil please. .. Wow! Can you make it white not yellow .. and can it glow like some of the other things? Can you make a hundred copies spread out a bit randomly .. Thanks. That's so easy! Oh. Hello!."

"Hello? What are you seeing?"

"Who not what."

"Who then?"

"Matthew and Leona."

Leo spins around to see the sleeping twins. "What are they doing?"

"Waving at me and pointing at a floating stick."

"A stick? Like off a tree?"

"No silly, I've created daffodils not trees, it's more of a long cylinder."

"How thick? Like Tim's fold out computer or thicker?"

"Lightcycle handlebars thick."

Leo and Danny exchange glances with George and Toby.

Danny powers up another monitor. "Do you see a bit around you?"

"I can see all the way around if I turn."

"I meant a bit. Yes No sort."

"Oh, sorry, yes, I see one of those."

"Can you tell it to get behind you, five meters away, looking at the middle of your body? From twice your height."

"Sure." she does as asked, repeating the distances.

The point of view changes and there the three of them are.

Toby frowns, "They're doing this even in their dreams?"

Danny raises an eyebrow, "If they were anyone else's kids I'd be running for the frigging hills mate!"

"I think I'd be only feet behind you. And I'm their father! Sophie, grab the stick, see what happens."

"Okay Leo."

She does so and the bike materialises, forcing her body to move, the machine she's strapped into getting her close to horizontal. She's giggling like crazy as in the VR it's too big, she's on what would be a petrol tank on a gas guzzler. Matthew waves an arm and it shrinks down to her size allowing her to sit properly.

"Bloody hell!"

Two more sticks fade into existence and the kids grab them.

"No way! Does Mattie know they can do this?"

"Hack electronics remotely, yes. On this sort of scale, not yet."

The men watch, mouths open as the three riders set off for a drive around the grid.

Around fifty minutes later the door bell rings, Emily calls out that she'll get it.

Fred, Gesha, Mia and Nis join them, look in amazement at the screen. Emily sticks her head around the doorway and asks Danny to help her pick something swanky.

Mia crouches down in front of the monitor, "Is that Leona and Matthew or simulations of them? They look very realistic."

"I suspect that's them."

"Tickle Matthew's nose for me."

Leo does as asked, in the VR Matthew wipes his face. Mia exchanges looks with Nis, George suspects they're talking over bump protocols but isn't close enough to pick up the stray radio signals. He looks at his phone, no messages. "Has anyone heard from Mattie?"

"No. But Holly-Anne, Joe, Laura and Tim have got the message, are getting changed."

"Did anyone book a restaurant?"

"Yes George. And Opera tickets."

"Opera Toby?"

"This is your big night. Didn't think a rave would do?"

"That would be wonderful! Thank you!"

"The only person missing and unaccounted for is Max."

Soon after Laura, Joe and Holly-Anne arrive. Still no Max.

Twelve minutes later, with a crowd around the VR watching Sophie, every phone chimes.

"Sophie! You need to finish the race, Mattie wants us in the workshop."

"Oooh, I've not found the sink yet!"

"You can come back another day Sophie, I'm sure Danny wouldn't mind, would you Dan?"

"No probs."

"Okay Leo. Matthew, Leona, wake up, we've got to go!"


	60. Chapter 60

Sophie puts her knife and fork together and pats her lips clean, copying the moves Mia had made. "What are we seeing at the opera Toby?"

"It was going to be a surprise. But since half the family could just hop on WiFi and get it without being seen I might as well say. Mozart's The Magic Flute."

George claps his hands together, "A quest for love, light and wisdom, in a world where nothing is what it seems. How wonderfully appropriate!"

Isobel, places a hand on his, interlocks fingers, "This world is so different to the grid! So much to see and do. And the music! I could get lost in that. Thank you all again."

Niska nods, "And I need to give my thanks for the wonderful food. And not needing a bag ever again. I won't miss it."

"I second that!"

"I third it!"

"Thank you Ladies. It was a join team effort. We'd not have them tonight if it wasn't for Daniel spending an absolute fortune on the printer."

"No problem, it will be fun to see how well it prints the squiddy."

Isobel frowns, "What's a squiddy?"

George kicks Danny under the table and makes a pained expression that clearly says to stop.

"Ah .. an ink pen."

The waiter comes to the table, "Is anyone having desserts?"

Toby cuts in as others go to say something, "Just the bill please, we have a show to see very soon. And can we have three TAXI vans?"

"Certainly Sir."

~~~

"I'm sorry madam, you can't bring them in."

"Sorry?"

"Babies and infants will not be admitted into the auditorium."

"These aren't your average babies, they're extremely well behaved."

"I'm sorry, but it's clearly stated on the web site in the booking conditions."

Laura steps in, "Can you show us this alleged policy?"

"One moment."

They watch the man disappear through a door next to the ticket office.

George leans close and whispers, "Did you see a certain flurry of hand movement Laura?"

"Yes. And I've been learning the alphabet."

"What did it say?"

Before she can answer the man returns with an iPad, "The site clearly shows that babies and infants will not be .. that's strange. I showed this to a couple only last week. Give me another minute."

They watch him hurry back through the door.

Mattie pulls Matthew and Leona higher and off her hip, "Were either of you doing anything in the last few minutes?"

Nothing but gurgling noises.

"Seriously? Your playing dumb?"

"Oh my!"

"Mum?"

"I've spotted one of the firms clients. With her Howard. He's still a standard synth by the looks of it."

The man reappears, "I'm sorry the text may have been removed in error by our web developers. It's on these printed documents."

George can see Laura getting ready for the kill, "We wouldn't have access to such things from home. When we booked we did so against the published terms on the media with which we were working. The web."

Peggy steps through the crowd, "Sorry I missed the restaurant, I was on an errand for a friend. Young man what Mrs Hawkins is saying is that you are breaking the terms of your contract. You have two options. Allow us all in, or refund us each the one hundred and twenty five pounds a seat. And accept the media coverage that will follow."

"How many of you are in the party?"

A sea of hands go up. The mans face slowly drops as he gets closer to counting the total of eighteen hands.

Toby puts up a second hand, "I bought one seat for the kids to share and another for an adult who we hope got the message and makes it in time."

George watches the man trying to do the math, recalls his stupid human thoughts from earlier in the month, "Times by two add a zero."

The man frowns.

"For God's sake man! It's simple math!"

Toby interjects, "Two and a half grand. And my Nobel Peace Prize winning sister is telling the truth about the toddlers, they're very well behaved."

"One more moment please." the man turns again and heads for the door.

"What d'you think Mum? Refund or exception?"

"I don't know Toby, it's a lot of money to hand back and a row of good seats they'll not fill. I think .." the door opens again.

"I have good news. Management have on this occasion decided that they will accept the risk of a disturbance. Please enjoy the performance Mrs Elster-Hawkins and family."

"Many thanks."

As they file through the door Mattie nudges her brother, "Nice name drop KC, thanks!"

"I didn't mention any names."

"The prize, they must have done a quick search."

The evening is excellent, the skills of the performers world class. George had listened to recordings of The Magic Flute many a time, he tells Isobel how the range the singers had to reach was very demanding.

George smiles at Sophie who'd been translating bits for Toby in a whisper. She was a remarkable little girl, not unlike her big sister. He feels Isobel squeeze his hand, looks to see her face full of wonder. So far so good.

George looks along the row at the twins, Leona turns to see his gaze and smiles back. There's a glint in her eye. The twins somehow managed to stay awake for the whole three hours, didn't complain once. Two half empty bottles of milk sit on the seat in front of them.

A note is passed from person to person.

George turns it so it catches the light. 'Heading back to the restaurant after for desserts. M' he passes it on down the line.


	61. Chapter 61

Leo hands back the menu "Apple pie and ice-cream please."

Isobel looks to Mia, "I've not eaten until this evening, anything you'd recommend?"

Mia scans the menu, "They're all good. But given the special day chocolate cherry kirsch hearts."

Sophie holds her menu up, "I'll have those too thanks."

Soon half the table is doing the same.

George holds his out, "Me too please."

~~~

There's a bang as the restaurant door slams. "So sorry!"

Leo turns, "Max! We were worried, where have you been?"

"Seeing someone. Saying my prayers."

"Brother Max, did George's Gods comments really get to you?"

"Yes. George is partly responsible."

Leo turns back to his dessert. "Little brother Max, talking to a God that doesn't exist."

"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. You have no proof. And neither do I. Maybe he didn't literally make Adam and Eve, instead seeded the oceans and let things develop. Who's to say natural selection didn't have a helping hand along the way?"

Toby chuckles, "What, like drop a coconut on the crab that grew three claws?"

Max smiles, "Something along those lines."

Isobel smiles too, taking her hand from Georges, "Natural selection sounds nice. Do you have the bag Peggy?"

"I most certainly do. This old bird likes a good mission."

George watches Peggy reach under the table, bring a small bag out and pass it over. Isobel takes it and puts it behind the table cloth, is doing something with it. She pushes her chair back and gets on one knee. Had she just dropped something? A small box is held out.

"George, I know you've only been with me in this world one day, but you kept me safe for many cycles on the grid. Will you do me the honour of being my partner program, life partner, my husband?"

George is motionless, hadn't been expecting this. "I .."

Isobel opens the tiny box to reveal a gold ring.

Sophie jumps to her feet, "George, I think the word you're looking for is the three letter word said by a bit."

"Yes? Yes it is. YES! Isobel Yes!" they share a kiss and hug to lots of cheering from the family. When everything settles down George frowns, a thought having just occurred to him. "How did you know to get a ring Peggy? And how did you know about marriage proposals?"

Max takes off his jacket, "And how did I know to hurry up and complete something that might be appropriate?"

"Bloody hell Max! Sorry, bad choice of words considering."

"Toby!"

"Sorry Mum, but turn around to see BROTHER Max."

The smiling Max is wearing a new shirt.

"What do you think? Clergy Collar dot co dot uk."

Niska laughs, "Nice fancy dress Max. We know you like dressing up."

"This isn't a cosplay. I'm now a ordained clergyman. I'm legally allowed to join George and Isobel in Holy Matrimony. Fred and Gesha, Mia and Tim, Silas and Sandra, Pete and Karen. Yourself and Odi too."

Leo is twisted in his seat to take a better look, "Since when?"

"I've been training for a long while."

"When?"

"Sunday evenings straight after camera club."

"Where?"

"The same place, the camera club meets in the church hall."

George is curious, "You were made by man, yet believe in God?"

"If man was made in God's image, and you made us in your's, then it's logical for the faith to be passed on down. Our grandfather who art in heaven as it were."

George smiles and laughs, "My good lord! Remarkable. My questions went unanswered. How did you know to get a ring Peggy? And how did you know about marriage proposals Isobel?"

Isobel looks at Mattie, "My special bit friends played a game."

Mattie only replies with a frown.

George frowns too. "You had more than one bit?"

"When you were not around, yes. They somehow got me asking questions, would only reply with two words, Yes or No. Through a lot of conversation I got to learn of GEO's user and some of his customs."

"All through yes and no?"

"Yes. And No. And code."

Danny pinches the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. "How could you possibly do that with only those two answers?"

"They had more answers than that."

"But you just said .."

"I know."

"Ok, skip back to the beginning. How did the conversation go?"

"Are you able to say more than Yes and No. Yes. But you're limited to Yes and No? Yes. Can you say any extra words? No. .. Can you combine the words in some way?Yes No Yes. You can talk in code? YES YES YES! Can you tell me the code for the symbols on the great console in the sky? YES YES YES YES YES! And then my lessons in morse code started."

Leo and Mattie exchange looks, "Morse code?"

"Yes No Yes Yes. No. No No No."

"Haha! Very good!"

"Leo? What did she say? I'm a bit rusty."

"If a dash is yes and dot no then she said dash dot dash dash. Dot. Dot dot dot. Which is Y. E. S. Yes. And remember morse is more efficient than using binary and ASCII codes."

"We didn't code any .. " Mattie's voice had tailed off.

George watches a big penny drop as she turned to her children. "You little tinkers. Were you in the VR every time we visited DC House?"

Leona grins and nods. "Yes Mummy."

"Why?"

"Help Unc George."

"And you appeared as bits only?"

Another nod, this time from both.

Isobel takes Georges hand and slides on the engagement ring. "They wanted me to know more about your world and GEO's user."

"I have a confession to make."

"I know GEO RGE. He and his user are one and the same. I don't fully understand how, but I accept it to be true. As brother Max accepts his God exists."

There's a long silence as the two look into each others eyes.

"Are you okay George?"

"I'm kicking myself for not asking Harun to give you the tear duct mod."

She laughs, "Just as well, I'd probably have emptied the tank already."

"Where is Harun?"

"He had a date with Matia."

"I could marry them too."

Mattie rolls her eyes, "Sounds like you'll be busy Max."

George looks around the table, notices that couples are now gazing into their partners eyes. "If any of you think you're jumping the line you've got another thing coming!"

Holly-Anne leans right forward to see down the table, "Then you better hurry up and get a wedding dress."

"I'd love to help pick one!"

"Mia?"

"Yes Leo?"

"Pick one? When we could make one?"

"You want to make Isobel's wedding dress?"

"Yeah, with some help from Silas and your mother Danny. With some style input from yourself."

"I'm sure Mum would be up for that."

George leans forward to see him, "Thank you Danny, that would be wonderful." he turns back to Leo, "Thank you too."

Isobel shuffles her chair sideways next to George's and puts an arm around him. "I have my yes. And offers of assistance for my dress. Where will the service be?"

Peggy rests an elbow on the table and puts a finger in the air. "Let me work on that. I have a few favours to collect on before I call it a day."

"Call it a day? It's close to midnight?"

"Yes Sophie. Maybe I should have said 'Call it a life', yes, that would have been clear."

"A life?!"

"Yes Mattie, I'll not be around much longer, I can feel it, and I don't fancy coming back. Don't get me wrong, it's been fun, but I've had my fill. I want to move on, hopefully see Ben." she gives a nod to Max.

George watches Sophie wipe a tear, Laura and Mattie's eyes well up. Not a word is said. They were respecting her wishes.

"Sorry to have lowered the mood. I was thinking St Paul's would be nice for the service, what do you think?"

"St Paul's, where Diana and Charles got married?"

"Yes Laura. Or there's always Westminster Abbey."

"You must have some awfully big favours to call in."

"I do. Many of them."

George watches Laura's face, go from surprised to excited.

"A letter from the Queen for Mattie, now our friends here might have their service where Princess Diana was married, God rest her soul. That would be really nice."

Mattie leans forward, "Mum's a bit of a closet royalist if you hadn't guessed."

"What are they? And what's a princess?"

Sophie is the first to try and explain, using Disney references which only prompts a lot more questions from Isobel.

After a good long chat Leo notices the waiter hovering with the bill. "Guy's I think it's time to head home."

"Where is home?"

They all turn to Isobel.

Sophie gets in first, "At Georges house."

"Who lives there?"

"I do."

"Anyone else?"

"Odi and I sometimes."

"Why sometimes?"

"Dad lets us stay over."

"Dad?"

"I adopted them Isobel, to give them the security they deserved."

"GEO RGE is George is father is dad?"

He chuckles, "I guess so."

"What does that make me?"

"When we're married, Isobel, Wife, Mum, Mother."

"Iso would love that."

Emily slips on her jacket, "Was that I so would love that, or ISO would love that?"

"Both! And I am ISO."

"They call me Holla for short, Emily Ems, Daniel Dan or Danny, would you mind us calling you Iso?"

"Isobel or Iso. Both are good."

"Cool."

"I'm adding you to one of the comics."

"What's a comic?"

"George, can you get Iso a phone and load the app?"

Danny waves a hand, "Don't spend any money, I got some tablets free with the sintering printer. No idea why, bit of an odd promotion. They've got 4G and WiFi."

"Can I have one for a bit Dan?"

"Sure Mats, why though, you've got that slate?"

"I'd like to write an app like the one we used to pick my dress, only put a lot more images in it. Other clothes too. Iso's going to need a whole wardrobe."

"I have two outfits now."

"Trust me. That's nowhere even close to enough!"

"How many do I need?"

Mattie smiles, "Lots. Ladies, who's up for a day at Westfield tomorrow?"

"Sorry little mouse, it's a school day for you."

"Many cycles were school cycles on the grid... " she sits motionless for a while. "Sorry. I can't keep this up anymore. All this pretending."

George feels everything around him slow. No, please no. She didn't love him. He watches her increase the distance between them and frown.

"Don't look so startled. I know about your construct, your simulation."

"You do?"

"The bits told me everything."

His world went into ultra slow motion, the water Joe was pouring looked like it was floating in zero gravity. All that work, the building of the construct, Harun's hours of painstaking hair placing, Joe's woodwork, to name only a few. All for what? He feels the saddest he's been since his new life started, watches her face slowly drop, expression go blank. What was the point in kidding himself? All sorts of thought processes ran, gave results and terminated. He imagined it not to look like a pretty firework show, more like every anti-virus unleashing their lightning on their prey. After what felt like a lifetime of pain he realised Isobel's face was merely doing a transition from one expression to another.

"I'm flattered that you went to such lengths to bring me to life."

"You are?"

"Of course!"

He relaxes, though not fully. She could still be thinking of walking away. Couldn't she? A thought, in his late Mary's voice enters his head. 'Oh George, stop overthinking things clock decoupled, it's not a good idea. Unless the other person in the conversation is too.' He down clocks just in time to hear her speak.

"LEO introduced MEH as his partner program. That instant I felt empty, something was missing. I longed for the stories of GEO to be true and that you would be my partner. And now it's true. You said yes. GEO wasn't a simulation, that was you." she throws her arms around him and whispers into his ear, "Just stay the way you are my lovely George Millican and I will be at your side for eternity."

As they all stand in the lobby waiting for TAXI Fred asks if he could have the honour of playing the organ at Saint Pauls.

He gets a nudge from Mattie, "No sneaking bits into The Imperial March."

"How about some Tron theme music?"

"Toby!"

"What? George loves it."

"Do you?"

"Solar Sailer is a favourite."

"Blimey."


	62. Chapter 62

George hadn't been allowed to go to the Elster-Hawkins or Hawkins houses since that night. They were planning everything. All he knew was that a date would be coming, soon, he had to be ready.

Toby had asked about a stag do, the ladies were having a hen night. Nothing too rowdy Emily assured him as Sophie would be attending.

Danny had done some surfing, said the traditional night was now a stag weekend, and occasionally a stag holiday.

"Everyone know which car they're in?"

"Er.. remind me Dan."

"Fred's driving DC3. George shotgun, you and Odi in the back. Max is driving DC2, Leo shotgun, Silas in the back. I've got DC1, Joe shotgun and Tim in the back. After the first fuel stop we play musical seats so everyone gets time with everyone else. Everyone got their change of clothes?" he looks around the group, all are nodding. "I've done some searches on social media, others say their team plays dirty. So use the car time wisely, come up with some tactics, we want the trophy for George right?"

"Yes."

"RIGHT?"

"YES!"

"Cool, let's go!"

George had never fired a weapon of any description until yesterday, Danny, Fred and Leo had come to the house with the shock stick guns. They were, he was told, similar enough to the paintball guns and pistols they'd be using.

On the motorway George changes the subject, "I just had a thought. The twins are able to use SDR. Could we do something similar?"

Fred doesn't take his eyes off the road, "We use radio on fixed WiFi bands, so I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

"Danny said the other team play dirty. They can't use anything too bad, EMP would be murder, this is a game not war. But they might try wideband radio jamming."

"DC3, set up a conference call with DC1 and 2 please." the phone rings.

"What's up Fred?"

"George was wondering how we can communicate, the other team might be jamming WiFi."

"Hand signals?"

"For short distance line of sight that would be good Tim, can you describe the signals?"

"I can do better than that, I'll share a video on the app. Do both of your cars have someone else with a phone?"

"Yes."

"Yes, George has his. What if we don't have line of sight or want to talk long distance to another unit?"

"Can any of you synths go into the ultrasonic frequencies?"

"Yes. But the range is only meters."

"How about the other extreme? Low frequencies?"

"Yes, that might work. And bass is non directional."

"We'll be in a forest won't we? How about bird call? You could carry the message encoded in the middle of the call. One synth per unit, like the radio officer in an army."

"Nice one Silas! What made you think of that?"

"I was thinking how we needed an idea to come and roost, y'know, like Mattie has them good ones? So I suddenly thought roost, Mattie a class bird, birdcall."

George is nodding at the dash speaker, "If we constantly make a background level of bird noise, regardless of having a message or not, they hopefully won't work out what we're doing."

"What if they've got synths too?"

"Bugger. They could ask them to decode it pretty sharpish if they suspected something."

"Decode. Encode. Encrypt. What could you use to encrypt it?"

"If the message was long, AES would be great, but we want quick short messages."

"My old man was a right cunt. Nasty fucker. But he did tell me about something they used in the war. Code books."

"How'd they work?"

George is nodding again, "We synchronise clocks, have a random code for each second of the three hours. When one of us transmits we use that second's code to do a transform on the message, the receivers use the code from that second to turn it back into the original message."

"Cool. We just need some tactics now."

"Yes Toby. Who's got ideas?"

Some good ideas flowed over their three car conference call. When they stopped for 'fuel' - food for the fabs, petrol for the hybrids, they decided not to play musical chairs. They'd just resume the call and continue.

"Pass the salt please someone."

Fred does so, "It's nice that these places give free WiFi. I've been checking the social media thanks to Danny's comment. The other team are accused of modifying their weapons. And not using the centres hire equipment. Not even their paintballs. One reports of a gatling gun fed by many flexible hoses full of balls."

"Imagine if we'd been able to bring Arnold in his original body!"

"Toby mate, that would've been sick, the other side would've crapped their pants!"

"Why didn't Paul and Arnold want to come?"

"Too worried original code would somehow return and people get hurt."

"Old root code doesn't return from nowhere like that."

"We know that, but the story of Anita and Mia has them superstitious."

"Really?"

"Tim, it's the truth, they honestly believe it."

"Oh well, their loss."

"Exactly."

"Fred, if they've been modding weapons we should do the same. Everyone familiar with the banana shot in football?"

Everyone else says yes, "Sorry, no."

"George, from above it's the shape of a banana, David Beckham was famous for them. The ball is kicked in such a way it's given a good spin. As the ball slows as it gets to target the spinning and air friction becomes more of an active force, the ball curls through the air. It can be used to curve a ball around a wall of defence."

Tim gets out his phone and finds a video online.

"Amazing! And we use that how?"

Fred raises a hand, "They have a WHSmiths here, let me get some bits."

"What bits?"

Back in the car Fred started the call again. "I cleared them out of elastic bands and anything I thought could be used directly or dismantled and repurposed. You all have the same bits. This will be like your old program The Great Egg Race. Let's see which car can create the winning mod. It needs to be able to sit at the end of the barrel, close enough to get the ball spinning, either through direct contact or disturbed airflow. And it needs to be easily movable so straight shots can be fired too."

There's the sound of doors opening, movement and closing.

George turns to see the other cars now no longer have anyone shotgun. "Odi, Toby, is there enough room for all three of us in the back?"

"There is Dad."

He joins them. Maybe having a new synth on their team was unfair, the other car had part synth or no synth. In his head George quickly ran through many thousands of permutations. "I have an idea.."

Tim's idea for tactics had been a good one. They deliberately lost the first battle to win the war. George, Fred and Max had been hidden under a lot of foliage and gone into low power mode, listening for signs of synths on the other team. They had two and now knew who they were. The rest of Team Dragon had been slaughtered in camp, but had been waiting for it.

"Do you know what the cheeky fuck said?"

"No Tobs?"

"Fucking amateurs, this is going to be like taking candy from a baby. Wankers."

"Did he use the W word or did you add it?"

"He did."

George shakes his head, "He sounds like a bully. We take the synths out first, then their bully."

"Assuming he doesn't hide behind them."

"Did you see the guns he's carrying? I don't think he's the type to hide. Here's what I think this games location looks like." he scratches out a map in the dirt. "If our banana shooters go here, here and here I think this can be the kill zone, we'll bend past all the tree cover here."

"Awesome George! How did you map it?"

"I thought of the ladies and what they'd be doing on Iso's hen night and how inappropriate it may be for young Sophie. Sophie led to thoughts of dolphins, dolphins to echo location."

"So those bat like clicking noises were you?"

"Yes Tim. It's One Nil to them. Are we going to let them win another?"

"Hell no!"

"Everyone?"

"HELL NO GENERAL GEORGE!"

"That's my boys, lets go paint them red."

When they stopped for lunch Tim had them all quickly take off their mods and put them in his supplies bag along with the spare paintballs. "That was brilliant, I wish we'd been allowed to take phones in, that first synth of theirs was COVERED in red."

"The banana shot's working well. Thanks mate!"

"Welcome, you .. Oh hello, here comes trouble."

George watches the leader of the other team approach.

"You lot are cheating, don't.."

"That's rich coming from you with all your non-standard weapons!"

"No rules about that."

"Cheeky fu.."

"Easy Toby. He's right about the rules. They only have a few. No removing the face mask in game. No frozen paintballs. No physical contact. No continued play once you've been shot. A marshals call doesn't get arguments. That's it."

"So how can anyone cheat?"

"I'm watching you."

George watches the man do a motion with his hand, a V shape pointed at his own eyes, turned to point at his team. With the man walking back to his team George shakes his head ever so slightly, "Was that supposed to be menacing?"

"Yeah. What a prick. I wish I had my phone too now. If anyone deserved the name knob cock it's HIM. What an a-hole."

The first of the three afternoon games was over quickly, the opposition despatched in a similar way to the second morning game. The location had changed but not the strategy.

At the final game, set around an old tank, cars and bus George hit a problem. "They've worked out what I'm doing. One of their synths is clicking after me upsetting the echo."

"Bugger, now what?"

Fred grins, "Brother Max, do you recall the fourth rule?"

"Yes. No continued play once you've been shot."

"Nothing about Dead Man Walking."

"No?"

"Then you will provide as much continued cover as is reasonable with the ammunition we have left. I will crawl into the middle and stand up. I'll be shot, but but before a marshal asks me to retire from the game I'll do a full turn and head bump the view."

"Head bump?"

"On maximum power."

Max smiles warmly, "Brother, you are the better marksman, let me make the sacrifice, you can pick off their men."

And so the war was won. George had got extremely accurate with his curve shots. Some of the opposition had come out of cover to give the 'dead' Max a pasting with their blue paint, been hit by curving red from the left and right.

"Well done guys! You're the first to wipe out Team Annihilation in years. How long have you been playing?"

Max the joker grins, "Including today?"

"Yes."

"Just today."

"You're shitting me?"

"No, no BS, rabbit droppings or any other type. Just today."

"Tony's going to be furious. They've been the undefeated champs for ages. I hope none of you opted to park in the closer carpark?"

Danny frowns, "Why?"

"If you have you might need to visit a car wash."

~~~

Day two, with a very worn out but jubilant team, was spent at the pub. A good hearty full English breakfast to start, then the beers and cider. At a pleasant rate, nobody wanted to get 'shit faced before lunch' as Silas had put it.

"I quite liked the blue patterns on DC1, shame we had to wash it off."

Max smiles, "What did you think of my Blue Man impression?"

"I still don't know how you found enough of their paint."

"The paint grenades. That bully was so furious he walked off leaving a box of them behind."

"Haha, you could make it part of your stage act, just pick another colour."

"Such as?"

"How about the dark green of your clergy shirt."

"Brother Green? I like that, thank you Toby."

They'd ended up doing a short pub crawl, finishing up in the pub where he'd done his dragon impression.


	63. Chapter 63

The big day had arrived. George smiled to himself, he could hear every single word being said in the vast space. Thanks to his further experiments at home he was quite sure he could place all of the sources too. Attention was paid to one particular conversation.

"Why are you crying Mattie?"

"That's such a beautiful interpretation."

"What is it?"

"Arrival."

"From the film?"

"Yeah."

There's a faint noise of something being torn? A pocket pack of tissues maybe?

"Fred's good isn't he."

"Amazing."

"George looks nice. And Leo. I hope Leo's not forgotten the rings."

There's an unmistakeable chuckle from Mattie, "He frigging well better not have done! I'll die of embarrassment, his synth reputation for memory proceeds him."

"Max looks nice too."

"Brother Max. I don't care what they call them it still looks like a frigging dress."

Sophie bursts into a fit of loud giggles at Mattie's comment.

"Sorry Mum!"

"Who's giving Isobel away?"

"Harun."

"Really?"

"He's the closest to a father she's got in the physical world, he did do most of the build."

"Guess so."

"And ignore everything that happened in the simulator, that will just mess with your head. If .." the tune suddenly changes to Mendelssohn's Wedding March. "If you hear Fred work in a Tron section count it I've got a bet with Tobs."

"Okay."

Fred had promised George that Tron would be kept out of the march, he'd been given free-reign for anything before or after. The sisters would come away with a score of zero.

"She's beautiful!"

He hears the shutter sound effect of Sophie's iPad and his phone buzzes. She must have shared via the app. He thinks of pairing with the phone and using the API Leo had taught him about, then thought better of it. Sometimes it was nice to wait for surprises. His smile grows.

Then there's a whisper. "Do you think it's a wig?"

His smile fades.

"If it is it's a frigging good one." 

Now a frown. He fights the urge to turn around, glances at Leo who's looking a little nervous.

"Everything okay Leo?"

"Hopefully."

"Why only hopefully?"

"I get a bit panicky when there's a camera crew about."

"Paul? He's brilliant."

"No, London Live. The TV news people."

George frowned more. Who might have told the media? None of the family sought the attention. Far from it from the stories he'd been told.

A moment later he's aware of Isobel out of the corner of his eye. He turns to greet her with a smile and for a fraction of a second must have looked startled. "Oh my!" This wasn't the short hair of Iso but long flowing curls that went on and on. He was tempted to turn and move back a little to see where they ended but decided to save that surprise until later. He mouths the word 'Beautiful' and smiles. She smiles then mouths 'Thank you' in return.

He loved his wife to be, couldn't wait to get to the reception to have a dance. He liked Max, hoped he would keep things short. Max, he soon realised, was doing things by the book. At one point he played with decoupling his clock, not to put things in slow motion but to go the other way. Slow his down so everyone else looked faster. He quickly realised it was a mistake to experiment like that at his own wedding, he came close to missing Max give them his first cue for their vows.

"George, will you take Isobel to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"

What a daft question! "I will!"

George watches Max turn to Isobel and ask her. He's suddenly aware of noises outside the building, police sirens and shouting. Not so loud that anyone in the congregation was paying it any attention. Maybe Isobel was filtering it out, unaware of what sirens and shouting meant, or just didn't have the same hearing range.

".. be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"

"I will."

He'd been watching Max for any signs that he was concerned, turns back to Isobel and gets a lovely smile. There's more shouting outside, and still the congregation were ignoring it?

".. support and uphold them in their marriage now and in the years to come?"

"WE WILL!"

The volume made George turn to see them, both Sophie and Mattie were giving them a thumbs up.

Fred's organ work was excellent, it made the hymns more bearable, he'd never liked singing in public. Especially after his alleluia moment. Leo had done Mattie proud and produced the rings without prompting at exactly the right time. If George hadn't been listening for any WiFi transmissions from Iso' he'd have assumed Max and Leo were talking bump style.

He'd clearly said the right words at the right times as the service continued without hitch, but his conscious thoughts were all about Isobel. Where their life together would take them. Part of his mind had become autopilot for the sake of everyone else in the cathedral.

"I therefore proclaim that they are husband and wife." Max joins their right hands together. "Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder."

Max manages to get the blessing done before the noise outside is noticed by the congregation. While they sign the register Fred manages to drown the noise out with some spectacular improvisation, literarily pulling out all the stops. It sounded like classical music but was nothing like any of the composers he'd listened to through the years.

Register signed Max smiles at them both, "I'd say go in peace, but I'm told we may have a lot of trouble outside. If this was a paintball battle I'd happily go and do my thing, only I'm told some of the crowd outside are armed with bats and sticks."

Isobel puts a hand on Georges shoulder, "Why would some be armed?"

"It's like they're anti-virus, and they've mistaken us both for viruses. They don't want us in their system. I swore an oath to protect you and protect you I will."

Max leads them out, "I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, in light of what sounds like growing hostility outside I'll have to stop the service here."

"Kids, stay with Grandma and Grandpa please, I'll be right back."

George knew who those words belonged to, watched a very angry Mattie get up and walk with determination towards the doors.

"I'll help."

That was his daughter Niska.

"Well if you're going so am I!"

Mia? He'd not rate her as a fighter. The door opens and there's a mix of noises, it's slammed shut. There's increased noise and some cheering, a scream and roars of laughter. The scream had been a mans. The noise, cheer, scream, laughter pattern repeated twice more.

"MY FRIENDS WERE GETTING MARRIED! DO YOU FRIGGING MIND!" the noise levels drop a little. "George Millican was a flesh and bone human just like you! He was shot and his body died, his consciousness, HIS SOUL, his passion, his LOVE FOR LIFE AND OTHERS LIVES ON. Give him and his wife some respect and let them live their life in peace! WAP OFF!"

Isobel had heard it too, "You died George?"

"Yes. I was accidentally shot. Leo had a program hidden in his head that enabled him to bring me back, in this new body. I helped design the first synthetic body many many years ago with his father and another man."

"So you're affectively your own maker?"

"Remaker. I didn't make the first me."

George feels her pull him hard and spin him around, the next thing he's aware of is her hand at the back of his head, her lips now locked on his. There's a few laughs then cheers from the congregation, a few wolf whistles. He slowly wraps his arms around her, realises he can't feel the end of her hair. Had I not even once stood behind her? No, the memories said side by side. He hears the door open and noise levels rise, the clip clop of a ladies heals coming towards them.

"Take all the time you want George, there'll be no more problems."

He feels Isobel relax her grip. After a few seconds their lips part and she smiles at him, puts her forehead to his. 'Ask Mattie the question, I can feel it wanting to be asked.'

'Did you just ..'

'Yes.'

He turns to her, "Why no more?"

"They understand that a human is now in a new body. When they attack a standard synth it's just property damage, a criminal offence at most. If they killed someone like Max it would be worse, but the Hawkins Legislation still isn't accepted enough to call it murder. But you, you'd make it murder, and that none of them want to risk taking the rap for."

"But I'm just one."

"I might have told a little bit of a fib on live TV."

"Which was?"

"There are now hundreds of post-human synths walking around the UK, looking just like you and me, not wanting any bother, just to get on with the lives they had before their bodies failed."

George chuckled, "If that's little I hate to think what a whopper is like."

Mattie grins, "You'll find out soon enough."

They head into the congregation and talk to family. George finds Harun, "I don't know how you made her hair like that but thanks, it's lovely!"

"Would you like to know?"

"Yes, but not until after the honeymoon thank you. This must be Matia."

"It's lovely to meet you George."

"Likewise. Coming to the reception?"

"I'm looking forward to it."

"Me too. I've had two left feet for forever, hopefully this time around I can make it one of each."

There's a cute giggle from both of the twins.

Isobel gives his arm a squeeze, "Just imagine you're back on the grid, you moved fine in there."

They went and found Mattie who still had Sophie by her side, each was carrying one of the twins. "Hello ladies, how are you both?"

"Lovely thanks George. You both look fantastic, I'm dying to know how you did your hair Iso."

"Harun did it, but he's not allowed to reveal how until after our honeymoon."

George looks around at the many faces admiring him and his wife. "I know I said you could invite some friends but I didn't expect to see so many people. Who are they all?"

"My uni professor, now retired, the team from uni that helped Leo and their partners, some of Max's camera club buddies, family friends and colleagues that are pro synth. Some of the army guys, the beamer boys. Alana, Dan and Joe, Dan's mum Fay. Peggy's got a number of ladies from our circle along, they're quite keen to meet you, Peggy's been telling them the stories apparently. Harun's got a few friends here that are wanting to talk to you too. They've got orders pending with him. Now they've seen Iso there's a bit of a fight on to get to the front of the queue."

Isobel smiles, "Really? Because of me?"

Mattie looks around her to see none of the people in question are close. "There's a TV show that does makeovers. They show the public a girl and ask 'Snog, Marry, Avoid?'"

"What's snog?"

"What you did to George, that big kiss. And what often follows. In the show it's used in a somewhat derogatory way, they'd snog then leave them. I'm sure I wasn't supposed to overhear their conversation but did. One admitted he had wanted a 'snog model', various things out of proportion. He openly said he'd changed his mind. He wants a natural looking woman like yourself, a marry model and that he'll be happy with whatever snogging she allows. That's major!"

George frowns, "I'm assuming by out of proportion he means boobs and buns? One of the lads at the paintball used the expression. Not our team by the way, the one that lost."

"Yeah. Exaggerated sizes."

Isobel frowns, "And that's major?"

"No, that's not the major bit, it's the fact he didn't want a sex doll anymore, it was the 'she allows'. He's thinking of HER more like a person, to be treated with respect."

"If his thinking has changed so much maybe he'll stand a chance of getting a human partner not a synth?"

"Exactly Iso! I didn't finish the list, the whole extended family are here, Karen and Pete, Tobias and Vis, Baby and Scarlett. Jimmy sends his regards, his wife is expecting so he didn't want to travel."

"Karen's here? Right now? Can you find her and tell her I'd like a chat? All past issues forgiven."

"Sure."


	64. Chapter 64

When they go to leave the cathedral they find a large crowd outside, all wanting to take snaps with cameras and phones.

"Are all these people here because of us?"

"I believe so Isobel, I believe so."

"Why?"

"A sentient synth marrying a post-human synth to his sentient synth wife? That's a rather major event in the history of mankind. The sort of thing people want to say 'I was there' about. And from the noise earlier there must have been a few objecting, hopefully Mattie is right and they've dispersed."

"Doctor Millican, I'm Vanessa Baffoe with London Live, we've had a few heated comments from Doctor Elster-Hawkins, might we have an interview please?"

"Sir, Madam, I'm Paraic O'Brien, Channel 4 News, we'd also like an interview."

"I'm only giving one, we have a reception to get to."

He watches the two reporters exchange glances, clearly anxious as to who would get it.

Max steps forward, "Today has been about a coming together, may I suggest something?" he gets nods, "Do it together, a reporter either side of the Millicans and both cameras side by side. Introduce yourselves to your audiences and take turns to ask questions." he looks at the camera man and woman, "And I suggest you don't crop the other channel's reporter out, it won't look good for your audience. Keep the view as wide as possible, get as many of the guests in as you can."

"Sure."

"Totally agree."

George smiles, "Many thanks for that Max." he turns to the reporters, "I'm sure you may have similar questions, so remember to take turns, think on your feet, don't take it too seriously and enjoy the moment. Do this well and people will remember you as much as the story you're reporting."

A Sky news reporter and his cameraman comes pushing his way through the crowd, goes to raise his microphone.

George puts up a hand, "I'm sorry, you're too late, you're welcome to have your cameraman film the interview but only Vanessa and Paraic will be asking questions."

George feels a tap on the back and turns to see Sophie.

"Hello Sophie, is everything okay?"

"Is this going out live?"

"I think so, why?"

"We're going to hide inside and watch on my iPad if it is."

He turns and confirms with the two crews, the sisters retreat inside. With the doors open he can just make out their talking through the high levels of noise.

"Why was there screams and cheering Mattie?"

"Some WAP idiots were there with baseball bats. I provoked them to swing at me."

"That was very dangerous!"

"Nah, Niska's taught me a few moves."

"So what happened?"

"I acted fast with a special blocking move, it causes the thing to swing around and hit him instead."

"So the man hit himself three times?"

"No, the first man twice. The second went for Mia. Nis gave him a good kick when he tried it on again. The rest of them got the message and scarpered. Your badass big sister's got some moves now thanks to Nis."

"Did the film crew get it on camera?"

"I frigging well hope so, if those bastards think of trying to press charges we've got evidence it was self defence."

George smiles, the sisters really were quite something, he hoped a lot of whatever it was they had would rub off on Isobel. "Okay, one interview, ladies first so you've got the first introduction, then you Paraic then you ask the first question Vanessa."

He hears Sophie say "Take turns like Ant and Dec."


	65. Chapter 65

The guests are all allowed to make their way to the reception, George and Isobel are asked to remain at St Paul's a little longer so Paul can get more photographs with just the couple in shot, then a few with Max.

Paul sticks the camera on a tripod, "I'll take multiple shots for each set, the first will be for your faces, subsequent ones to be able to clone moving tourists out."

"I love the shots you did of Mattie and Leo at the comic convention."

"Thanks, they were great sports."

"Jazz, could you ask the couple at the back right to move a bit please?"

"Yes. One sec."

"Jazz has been previewing this morning's shoot Isobel, she says they've come out lovely."

"Morning's shoot? Where was that?"

"At the hotel, getting ready."

"Oh. Is that why you rushed over all excited to get the shots of Leo and I?"

"Yes, the getting ready shots for the album. Jasmine is my editor now, I take the shots, she makes them look great."

~~~

At the reception they're greeted by Mattie, Leo and Max, "Everyone wants to meet you, rather than have it down to luck everyone's in a line, like Mattie got in Vegas."

Isobel smiles, "Isn't this what they do for princes and princesses?"

"It is, and you're George's princess."

"Thank you Leo."

The introductions take almost an hour, a few of the guests wanting to take selfies with the couple. There were lots of people he'd not met before, a few relatives he'd lost touch with. At the very end of the line a young lady, he couldn't place her age, shakes his hand, "Lovely to meet you George, I wouldn't have been old enough to remember you when we first met, I spoiled your first wife's top."

"Holly Alice!?"

"Yes."

"How wonderful! The last memories I have of you are from your sixth birthday party. My how you've grown! How are your mother and father?"

"Good thanks, at another wedding up in Scotland, they said I should come and represent the McIlroys."

"Mary was nuts about you especially. Such a pretty baby. And now a beautiful woman."

"Thanks. I have to work at it."

Isobel frowns, "What do you mean?"

"If I don't go to the gym every spare moment I blow up like a puffer fish."

George shakes his head, "That doesn't sound right. I never thought much about food when I was flesh and bone. Now I've got a tongue that can analyse food on touch I could fine tune a diet. Only now I don't need it. Ironic isn't it?"

"Just a bit! I wish I could do that."

"Are you single?"

"At the moment."

"Good. Not good that you're single, good that you won't have anyone getting jealous. I've had a rooster."

"A what George?"

"You'll see Iso." George grabs both their hands, "I have an idea, come with me!" he works his way through the crowd to where he'd last seen Leo. "Coming through! Excuse us please! Coming through! Leo, this is Holly Alice McIlroy, she could do with a nutrition expert. Do you think one of the many synths in your cargo container could be patched up, given Silas's code and trained to be a nutritionist by Mia?"

"I don't see why not? Would your family be okay with that?"

"I'm sure they would."

"Ok, leave your address with George and we'll see what we can do for you."

"Thanks! That would be super!"

Leo gives Danny a gentle shove, "There you go, another arm for DC Healthcare. And yet another job for Mia. Good job she can multitask."

George smiles at them both, "Most Excellent Dudes!"

Danny laughs, "Have you been working down the list?"

"You and I have witnessed many things, but nothing as bodacious as what just happened."

"Ha. That's a yes!"

Isobel turns to Geoege, "Bodacious?"

Danny looks to Leo, "It's about time we made the link to UD part of every synths basic fact store."

"UD?"

"Urban Dictionary dot com. Check it out, it will help you understand some of the gibberish Toby and I speak."

"Thank you, Danny. What an interesting site."

"Your on it already?"

"The millisecond after you said dot com. Here's one for us George. Sapiosexual. One who finds intelligence the most sexually attractive feature. Quote, 'I want an incisive, inquisitive, insightful, irreverent mind. I want someone for whom philosophical discussion is foreplay. I want someone who sometimes makes me go ouch due to their wit and evil sense of humor. I want someone that I can reach out and touch randomly. I want someone I can cuddle with.' how random that I should be shown that word on my first visit."

As their guests mingle the corner of the large hall becomes visible, in it is a mountain of gifts, George shakes his head, "We have a house full of everything we need already, why so many large gifts?"

Danny smiles, "You'll see soon enough."


	66. Chapter 66

The wedding breakfast is most enjoyable, no bag needed and the flavours firing off recognisable patterns from the sensors. Leo's best man speech recounts the day they first met, how George had talked about the program within the program. "Enjoy your soup, we've been passed the recipe by a fan in Germany." Leo goes on to describe a few choice moments from the stag weekend, gives a warning, "No buying George a double shot of anything very flammable unless you're prepared to lose your eyebrows when he burps fire like a dragon. The speech is wrapped up with some nice comments about George and Isobel."

No dirt? Nothing Leo could drag up to embarrass him other than his dragon impressions? The only other thing he could think of himself was the moment he'd left Odi in the woods, it would appear Odi hadn't shared that.

He thanked everyone, gave a short speech of his own, thanking the team that had brought him back, given him this new life and wife.

"I could say so much more, but one thought has been at the front of my mind for hours. That's getting onto the dance floor with Isobel, so if you don't mind I'd like you to raise a glass .. 'To Isobel'"

As they move to the dance hall George looks around, "No DJ? Toby not playing?"

"Later, maybe, we've got something a bit different for you George."

Mattie makes a signal to someone on the other side of the room, a door is opened and a large group file in, all carrying instruments.

"Who are these young men and women?"

"Toby's band, school orchestra and Synthony."

"Synthony?"

"Synth symphony."

"Who?"

"A group of life saving synths that Leo gave the program to. They've learnt how to play for tonight."

"Especially for us?"

"Yeah. George The Revealer and wife."

"But Mattie all I did was show Leo how there was a program inside.."

"ALL? That was a pretty big little thing, if that makes sense."

"If you say so."

"We do. A whole series of events wouldn't have happened if it were not for that moment."

Silas taps George on the shoulder, "I'll second that."

He turns to see Sandra, in an elegant gold gown, "Hello you two, I didn't see you earlier?"

"Sand wanted to get changed like the others, the fucking lift broke down between fifth and fourth floors. Thought we'd be stuck there all night. For one moment I was tempted to go back to my old ways."

George remembers Leo's comment, "Old ways?"

"Got Internet access?"

"Yes?"

"Do a search for Aerosmith songs, you'll work it out. I didn't want to vandalise their CCTV or find us shared on the web so thought better of it. We just held hands and talked about your service."

"Did you like it?"

Sandra smiles and nods, eyes wide open, "LOVED IT! We want something much smaller for ours though."

"The musicians are ready, if you could both take to the floor." Mattie reaches down and picks up the little ribbon hoop that will let Isobel dance without tripping over the dress train. "George if you feel nervous just let Iso take the lead."

"Okay."


	67. Chapter 67

This was wonderful, somehow his feet were doing exactly what they needed to do, "I've not tried to dance like this in years! The last time was an embarrassment, I tripped over my own feet."

"Odi told me you liked watching old Ginger and Fred movies with Mary."

"He did?"

"And Sophie helped me learn to dance. And since I don't want to keep too many secrets I better admit that the twins helped you."

"They did?"

"Can't you sense an extra routine running?"

George checks the output of his equivalent to 'top', sees WH_AK_Fred.

"WH?"

"White hat. They're not controlling you, they donated the extra code so you could dance yourself."

"You said too many secrets?"

"The other one will be revealed soon, another surprise, which I hope you'll enjoy."

Their dance lasts a few more minutes, George notices Paul, had he been there the whole time? Dance over he gives Isobel a tight hug and a kiss, "Thank you my dear, that was wonderful!"

They mingle with the guests for half an hour, get more asking for photos with them.

"If you don't mind George I'm going to pop up to our room to change?"

"Not at all."

George mingles with the crowd, sees speakers being set up on tripods, a tower of half a dozen Korg synthesizer keyboards being wheeled into the room. He crosses the floor to the Hawkins family. "Is that your equipment Toby?"

"Mine? No, I could play one, but not six at a time."

"Six at once? Who's going to play that?"

"You mean who's going to pull out all the stops?"

"Ah, right, of course, Fred. I guess that was an obvious answer."

A minute later a chair is brought onto the edge of the dance floor, Mattie and Sophie walk to the middle, Sophie with a clipboard in hand. Mattie holds her hands up, "Ladies and gentlemen.. " she's not getting much attention, sticks a finger and thumb in her mouth and whistles. "Ladies and gentlemen, my awesome kid sister has been working tirelessly with a team to put a little something together for George. It will run for just under an hour. All your previous drink orders have been logged, more drinks will be brought to you by our waiters. If you need a bathroom break please take one now. Show starts in ten minutes."

George looks around, calls out, "Where's Isobel? I don't want her to miss it."

"I'll send Sophie upstairs, we'll ensure she sees it from the very start George."

"Thanks Mattie."

He watches Sophie nod at Mattie and run for the doors that led to the lifts.

Quite a few guests are leaving the room, he nods to Mattie.

She turns and calls out, "Don't join long queues, more loos on the floor below and above!"

George watches Fred get a bar stool and sit behind the set of keyboards, put on a pair of headphones.

"Anyone seen Max? It would be a shame for him to miss it."

"Not in the last half hour."

"Great horn and trumpet playing Toby, that was really really nice music to dance to."

"It was okay, I sound better with the rest of the guys supporting me."

"It was better than okay, it was really good, you underestimate your talents."

Toby tells him all about one of the other lads in his music class, he can play any tune on the piano after only a single listen, and he's a fab not synth.

"That's quite a gift."

"Yeah, the sad thing is he doesn't want to do anything much with it."

"Really? I could never understand people who discard such gifts without much thought."

Sophie returns and stands with her back to him, shows something to Mattie. Mattie nods and walks over to George.

"I need you to sit down and put this on. They're about to set up for the start and you mustn't see."

He's handed a blindfold. The lights are lowered, he sits and does as asked. There's the noise of people entering the room, instruments being knocked against chair legs, things scraped on the ground, soft noises of feet on the floor.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, George especially, may I present a Sophie Hawkins and Company production TRON LAKE!"

George feels the blindfold being lifted as the music starts. In the middle of the floor are Mia, Niska, Gesha and Isobel in figure hugging Sirens outfits. What follows is a ballet interpretation of the Tron soundtrack and film, played with a lot of classical instruments, backed by Fred.

If George had his daughter's mod he too would have emptied the tanks with a flood of happy tears. Sophie Hawkins deserved a medal for her work. He was in heaven. The music was great, his new wife dancing so gracefully it was beyond any words.

He soon realised where Max had gone, he'd changed into a Tron like outfit. With colour changing panels and a mask he played multiple roles, both good and bad.

Seeing Niska dance like this was heart warming too. Such grace. He quickly scanned the room and found Odi, a smile across his face. When the C.L.U music from the soundtrack was played, or rather their interpretation of it, the dance became very modern. It still had ballet influences, but was very animated.

"Bravo! BRAVO! Well done Sophie! Well done everyone!"

With the dance over Iso runs to George as he stands, she wraps her arms and one leg around him, holds his head with both hands at the back and locks lips. She's far warmer than before, somehow smelt different too, in a subtle but nice way.

"What did you think?"

"I'd died and gone to heaven, you are my angel."

"That good?"

"Better. Way better, words can't express how good that felt."

"Then bump with me George."

His feelings share seamed to go down well, her next kiss and embrace lasts quite a while.

Mattie taps George on the shoulder, "Are you both okay? Are you trying to set a new world record for the longest kiss?"

Isobel pulls away, "I'm sorry?"

"Twenty minutes is quite a kiss! I bet you didn't even notice the band setting up?"

"Who?"

"Nero! They've been waiting. It's not normal practice to open gifts this early but you need to open the two large boxes."

"The ones at the bottom?"

"Yup, that's them."

The Hawkins, Elster and Candlin families follow them to the corner, are joined by Silas and Sandra. Joe sticks one hand in a pocket, puts the other arm around Laura. "We all chipped in, Baby told us how much you enjoyed the ride in the states, and a couple of little spies told their mum how you liked the bikes in the simulator."

He turns and nods to the other Joe, music starts. "Baby let's drive into the night, just get up and go, leave our worlds behind. It's so easy if you just say that you might, just get up and go, leave it all behind."

Under the paper is a wooden shipping crate. George recognises the shape from his visit to America for the TED.com talk. This one was slightly different, two doors that opened in the middle with a thin rope on each door with a tag that said 'Pull me!'.

He looks across and waits for Iso to get to the same point, "Ready Isobel?"

"Yes."

"3 .. 2 .. 1 .. Pull!"

As the doors open light spills out, Isobel gasps, "Bikes from the grid!"

George turns to see the family, looks back and forth looking for Danny. He's missing. "Where's Danny?"

"Here George, helmets and leathers for you both."

"How did .."

"We make them? With our car making partner. They're way better than that firm in America. Ours are way better with custom rubber."

"Custom rubber?"

"The bike in the US looked to use a standard tyre on the front, put a shell around it to make it look wide like a light cycle. I really don't think it could do a fast bank turn like ours. Let's get them out."

George realised the band had been looping the music waiting to carry on with the song, waves at Alana and mouths Sorry.

She waves back, keeps doing her dance.

"How do we get them out?"

"I'll teach you how to control them with your thoughts tomorrow, for now I've got key fobs." the gyros spin up, there's the sound of a small motor doing something inside and the bikes start inching forward.

"That's so cool!"

"Frigging awesome aren't they Teeny!"

Baby is kneeled in front of Scarlett, "Did it take long to do? Are you taking orders?"

"Nah, it's the same bike, just in a new shell, wider wheels, new tyres. And a load of electroluminescent wire and patches. If Sister Synth would like them it's about three weeks from order to delivery."

Baby claps her hands, "Yes please!"

"The hotels okay with you having a ride around the dance floor George. As long as you don't do sudden moves and leave rubber marks."

George laughs, "The song did start Baby let's drive into the night, Iso and I can ride one, Scarlett and Baby the other, then everyone else can have a turn."

"Thanks Dad, I'd like that!"

Paul is stood in the middle of the dance floor with Mattie, Leo and his wife, the two bikes doing wide circles around him. "This has to be the weirdest reception I've been to. Good, but weird. Sophie's done the family proud yet again."

"Hasn't she just. I've not seen Mum cry with happiness like that for ages, Dad too."

~~~

Mattie's phone chimes, "Leo, we're being called." she watches Jasmine in the distance turn to whisper something in her ear.

"Okay, see you in a second."

Mattie reaches a hand up into empty space, closes her eyes and pulls up the visor, "What's the emergency?"

"We need to start transferring the power cords to the permanent UPS feed Dad installed. I didn't want either of you in there incase something went wrong. I want to freeze the clock, pause everything. What's it like in there? It looks amazing from out here."

"Beyond awesome! Being able to relive all that is nuts. So much better than an ordinary wedding album. Your micro video drones were a brilliant idea."

Leo looks at his phone, "Still no messages from either of them. They do know how to use the app don't they?"

"George does for sure shark boy, he'd told me how he'd been catching up with the comics."

Shark boy. That feels like a lifetime ago. I could do with a holiday."

"Fly out to Antigua?"

"Why not? Fancy joining us Dan?"

"Are you kidding me? Not even Arnold could stop me."


	68. Chapter 68

"Can everyone sit them up?"

"Yes Matthew."

He watches as his request is carried out. "Turn them so they face each other please. Good. Everyone ready?"

"Here we go again."

"Joe, be more positive."

"I've been positive every time Laur, didn't make a scrap of difference."

"As Granddad said, here we go again."

There's a chorus of power up sounds.

"Don't move, don't try to talk. Listen to what I have to say."

"Who's talking?"

"Mum, I said don't talk."

"What the frigging hell is going on, I'm hearing you with my ears! And that's not a child's voice!"

"Mother, listen to Matt."

"Leona? What's going on!"

"Mum, shush!"

Matthew touches her hand. "Mum, we've got some news for you. Reviewing Dads memories we discovered you'd made a pledge to each other. So we hope you'll be fine with this."

"Please tell me that's not your hand?"

"It is, sorry."

Mattie goes to lift the blindfold, tears running down her cheek.

Matthew blocks her. "Sorry, not yet. Good that you can move your arm so well. Dad we think will be fine, Emily and Danny, you need to understand that we've worked hard to remove a memory. It's taken a LOT of attempts to get to this stage. Dr Fitz, Harun, George, Isobel, Fred, Gesha, Leona and I have been working on this for a number of years."

"Years? How many?"

"Emily, listen. Dad was the only one that truly knew how this worked. It took a lot of trial and error to get here, slowly piecing the parts of the puzzle together. We've managed to pull your residual self images. You're all how you'd like to be."

Danny shifts, "I can guess where this conversation is going."

Leona holds his hand, gets Emily's and places them together. "Emily, Danny, you're now holding hands. How does it feel?"

Emily shifts a little, "No different to normal, why?"

Matthew places his parents hands together, nods to George.

"Danny, Mattie, Leo, would you say the same?" George gets three yes. There's cries of laughter and cheers. He nods and smiles, "If we told you how many times we've gotten to this point and had to start again you wouldn't believe it. We needed you ALL to be perfect."

Emily grips Danny's hand tight, "Are you trying to tell me I'm now a synth?"

"Sentinel Synth version three."

Emily almost rips Danny's skin with her fingernails as she tenses with the shock.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry! Three?"

"We didn't want you in anything but perfection. New custom core, unique to Sentinel. George's design. New sensor tech, one trillion of them, a new bus system Leona came up with. I hope you don't mind but we've spent a few million out of all your accounts to fund the manufacturing tools that Harun and George designed. With the version two sales picking up we should be able to repay that in a couple of years."

Emily relaxes her grip, "You said you'd erased a memory. What happened? The last thing I can remember is relaxing on a deck chair at the beach with the others."

George looks around the whole group, "Are you sure you want to know?" He gets four yes. "On the return flight into London the plane got into problems with a fire onboard. Mattie made a call, alerted us to what was happening. With some help from the beamer boys we recovered your bodies in time."

"Bodies?"

"The plane crashed before it got to the runway. You all came out unconscious and in a critical condition."

"Frigging hell. .. You said version two sales, why not three?"

"Nobody will want to spend one and a half million on a synth. Unless it's for a new body for themselves."

"Holy crap. That's a lot."

"Yes Daniel, but we thought you'd find it worth it. The new processes were complex, I bet you've not even noticed an important difference."

"Is that Dr Fitz?"

"Yes."

"What difference?"

"You've not had to be awake when you were trained how to use your new bodies. As soon as the blindfolds are off you're welcome to get up and move around."

Mattie raises her free hand, "And when will that be?"

"Right now if you want."

She pulls hers off. "Oh Leo, you look frigging fantastic! So glad you liked the smart clean shaved look."

He pulls his and laughs, "You should take over the clothes chain, Forever Twenty One. Gorgeous!"

Emily and Danny pull theirs off.

"Looking fit Ems, you'll need your ink done again."

"Not so bad yourself! Show us your six pack!"

Mattie looks around the room, starts crying.

"Mum?"

"I've missed you growing up!"

"No you haven't, think about our second birthday party."

"What .. the party. How can I remember that?"

"Mia had the idea. From her Anita experience. She hosted your consciousness. Fred did the same for you Leo."

"I .. I have memories of playing catch. But it's not Fred's hands I see?"

"That will be the real time VR translation. Another of Mia's ideas. Bits of the Tron environment code ripped out for a synth to run, recoded with a lot of help from Tim and Si. That took a while to perfect."

"How old are you both now?"

"Sixteen mum."

Mattie bursts into tears, has a good cry. Matthew and Leona comfort her, pass her tissues. "Mia and Fred carried our minds around for years?"

"Off and on. Yes."

"Frigging hell. How was Tim about it?"

"Fine, she was only Mia when with him, you when with us."

"I must be dreaming."

"No, you're quite awake."

"George, where's Isobel?"

"At home helping Sophie and Jason cook dinner for everyone."

"Jason? Who the frig is Jason?"

"Her husband."

"MUM! WHAT?"

"She is in her twenties now Mats."

"Bloody hell! I just thought wedding and in popped a memory of her in the dress. She looked beautiful! That's freaky. Wow. I have memories of how things felt too. Good God! Even memories of walking past windows and mirrors have me as the reflection not you Mia. It really was like I was there."

"That's the point. YOU were."

"No, I wasn't .. oh, I get you. You're saying the real me is my consciousness, not what it's carried around in?"

"Exactly!"

"So the whole family are gathering for dinner?"

"Yes. All except one who passed."

"Passed up dinner?"

George lowers his head. "Passed away. Peggy. She'd hoped to hang in there until we got this right, she left a VRV for you."

"A what?"

"Virtual Reality Video. Remember your PTSD camera array?"

Mattie wipes a load of fresh tears, "Of course?"

"It's just four super high resolution cameras now. And a processor the size of a shoe box. Very portable."

"Who designed that?"

"Kahvi."

"Who?"

"Our son."

"Gesha, you did it then? The root code merge?"

"We did, thanks to George and Harun. He's wonderful. Sentinel synth v1."

"Did the merge go okay? No issues?"

Gesha laughs, "There has been one, but it's okay."

Leo stands and turns, "What's the one then?"

"He falls in love with every new person he meets, synth or fab. It can be a bit draining."

"I bet! What else has changed?"

"Danny, your father has retired. His hips playing up too much. I've offered surgery but he's refused it."

"I'll have words, see if I can talk some sense into him, thanks Fred."

Leo looks at his brother, "What else?"

"Gesha and I are Sentinel v1's too. As are Fred, Niska, Baby and Scarlett. Mia's doing her upgrade tomorrow to a v2."

"Why?"

Harun steps forward into the brighter light, "The Sentinels are designed to be repaired. No bad Hobb or Persona influences in DCL. We got the idea from Iso's build. So Fred's hand twitch is a thing of the past."

Leo gets close to his brother. "So you're telling me this is a new body? I can't see any difference?"

"Good. There shouldn't be any visible difference. Except one."

Fred opens his eyes wide and steps into the light so Leo can see properly.

"Ah, eye colour. Love the pale blue. What else?"

"Lots."

"Such as?"

"Nero touring with Sandra. Alana and her are getting on like a house on fire. She's had two children."

"Frig, that's something I'd like to have seen."

George smiles, "I thought you might. Which is why I went and recorded a VRV for you. It's on an optic at the house waiting for you."

"A what?"

"Oh. We've not told you. Optical storage. It's what we're using in the latest Angel Hosting site, built behind Sentinel House. There's another thing, the site has three more houses."

Danny frowns, "For who?"

"Mia and Tim, Fred, Gesha and Kahvi, Si and Chris."

"Where did you build them?"

"On what used to be the coach parking area."

"Oh, so the lectures stopped?"

"Far from it! They're still going strong. People keep asking when you'll be back Mattie. It's been the longest stand-in job ever."

"But no coaches?"

"No need with so many driverless cars now."

"Google?"

"God no. Lexus. You could call them DC1 offspring. Very smart cars. Your spanning tree change made a huge difference to the code Mattie. With their large processor core they became so much smarter. Still not sentient but you'd think they were."

Danny looks at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact, "The DC car unit was meant to be kept private."

Laura walks around the back of the others and stands by Danny, rests a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, that's my fault. I couldn't stand another prosecution case. It had gone too far."

"What had?"

"The car crashes. Too many lives lost. They couldn't take intelligent evasive action quite like your's."

"Oh. In which case, fine. Any other changes?"

Harun smiles, "Leo's container has gone. Florence fixed the majority of the spares up. We had a massive digger come and move the trees, one of those specialist ones that get the roots up in one big scoop. The workshop has been extended to take up the space. It's about four times the size. We needed the space for all the machines."

"So where are we now?"

"In the workshop."

"But it doesn't.." there's a click, a noise of electric motors, chains moving. "Oh." Danny looks around as the walls and ceiling are winched into the air. "Neat. Done so we didn't freak out?"

George nods, "Exactly. We didn't want you doing an Isobel on us."

"Fuck me those things look scary!"

Harun laughs, "They do, but they have a large array of sensors, they'll stop their work if anyone comes close. The cage is just an extra precaution."

"What's the large thing like an oversized fridge at the back?"

"Sensor placer and skinner. We've changed the manufacturing process quite a lot over the years. It's way faster now. We can turn a new synth out in a day."

"A DAY?"

"Twenty two hours to be exact."

"Bloody hell! That's fast."

"Yeah, not bad given the much higher sensor count is it."

"How did you get the count up?"

"Parallel tape. It lays a mesh, not single row. That was Leona's idea. Much higher density and more down per pass."

"Cool."

"Can we have some clothes? My bum is getting cold in this surgical gown."

Leona reaches for dressing gowns, "Sorry Emily, of course. Go home, have a shower and get dressed."

"Shower? Is there any point?"

"For the enjoyment, yes."

"Enjoyment?"

"Do I have to spell it out?"

"What?"

"Everything works. Do you get me?"

"Um.."

"Everything is plumbed and wired."

"I think I know what you're saying."

"Your sex drive should be intact. You just won't be able to have children, sorry."

"Ems loved you kids as babies, but didn't want any of her own. I was cool with that, knew from the start. Not every girl wants to be a mum."

"Come on Dan, let's go get dressed, check out all the changes."

"Okay."

George watches them leave, turns to Leo and Mattie. "You both were kind enough to get me here. And help bring Isobel into existence, I had to return the favour. I had a selfish motive too, I couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life without the four of you around, somewhere."

"Aww, thanks Unc George."

"You're welcome Doctor Mattie Elster-Hawkins."


	69. Chapter 69

A new table had been set up in the conservatory, it was impossible to fit so many people around the kitchen table.

"This feels weird. But in a good way."

Fred looks at Mattie, "How so?"

"Watching you pick up a spoon and eat curry."

"It's good, Mia made it."

Mia smiles, "No, it's my recipe but Iso made that one."

"It's very nice Iso. I can't help but think of when you were in the crypt Fred, how different things were."

George holds his plate over the rice bowl and takes several spoons, "You started all this Mattie. You helped save Leo, more than once, helped with Max, Mia, Fred. Myself. Had Matthew and Leona. Helped bring Isobel to life. The chain of events has been remarkable. If you hadn't been the rebel curious headcracker in your teens I hate to think where we'd all be now."

"I'd be a dumb Anita."

"I'd probably be dead."

"Me too."

"Me too."

"Leo? Max? Fred? Do you really think that?"

"Hobb would have got the program, we'd all be slaves."

"And he'd have disposed of me for sure."

"Thank God my sister is a bad ass."

Everyone laughs, "So where did you meet Jason Teeny?"

"On the school playground. We knocked each other out."

"You what?"

"We were playing games, each in our own group, running around. I was going clockwise around my group, Jason anticlockwise around his. We met rather quickly between the two."

"What was your introduction like?"

"Oops. Thump. Fall down."

"And you're still human? They didn't bring you back as a synth?"

"No, still fab, for the moment. I might change my mind in the years to come."

"How about you Jason?"

"Fab too."

"Tempted?"

"I spend enough time on the Internet without access wired into my head thanks."

"Doing what?"

"Looking at social media mostly."

Joe picks up a bottle and looks down the long table, "Don't start the conversation about dancing cats again please! More wine anyone? So when are you off George?"

"Soon."

"Off? You've just brought us back from the dead and you're off Unc?"

"We cut the honeymoon short to come back to the UK when the plane went down. We've been working every single day since with only breaks to recharge. So Iso and I are going on a world tour with our bikes. With the four of you back in DCL you won't need me. Harun's got Sentinel v2 and 3 well under control. We'll be posting on the app, so we'll stay in touch."

Danny drops his fork, "EVERY day? How many times did you try and bring us back?"

"A few."

"How many?"

"For your own good, I'm not saying."

"That many?"

"Not saying."

"Shit. That must mean a lot." he raises his glass, "Well here's a toast to you all, friends, may we never give up on each other!"

Everyone raises a glass. "To friends."

Toby smiles, "If you keep servicing your body here's to seeing you at The Restaurant at The End Of The Universe! Dress code swanky!"

"Going synth one day KC?"

"Too bloody right I am! What's the point of keeping all that cash in the bank? 3 mill and Holla and I are sorted."

"Assuming we perfected the process. It was a rather long time with the four of them."

"True."

"So where are you heading first?"

"Back to Antigua. We'll be picking up where we left off. Could you pass the curry please? Sorry, not that one, the hot one. Thanks."

"When?"

"A few weeks maybe, we'll give you a chance to settle back in."


	70. Chapter 70

George looks at the setting sun, powers up the mod he'd had Danny do on his bike. "Are you ready Iso? Got everything packed? I've got the passports and tickets."

"Yes, I've double checked. Phone, charge cable, a spare change of bike clothes, three credit cards, two emergency charge cables, three twist up summer dresses, swimsuit, bikini and sunglasses. And the toothbrush and toothpaste you like the flavour of."

"Shoes?"

"How could I forget shoes!"

"You've not packed for a holiday before. Easy mistake."

"One moment!"

George streams some music to the mod.

"No frigging way! That's awesome!"

"I thought you might like that. The Geo and Iso World tour should get the new bikes noticed a bit more. Music will have people turning to look sooner. Do you think the bass is loud enough?"

"Totally SATISFYing!"

George lowers the volume a bit, "I'll keep you posted on the app. Any issues drop me a message. Thanks for the satellite phone Danny."

"No problem. Thanks for sticking around a bit longer, much appreciated. And for helping bring the four of us back. Now go enjoy yourself."

"Yeah, thanks Unc."

"Thanks George the Dragon. Easy on the rum."

"Look after yourself George The Revealer. Stay in touch. If you need anything just ask."

"A good break, make it so!"

"Have a good time George."

Isobel runs back to her bike, "Thanks, shoes for the beach, dinner and hiking packed. I'm ready."

Isobel gets a load of goodbyes too, a hug from Mia.

Niska gives her a hug too, "Look after him please. We want him back in one piece."

"Of courses Nis. I made sure his backups are up to date as a precaution."

George changes track as they pull away, getting a big smile and slow dancing from Mattie, her elbows up in the air as the others wave them off.

'Baby let's drive into the night, just get up and go, leave our worlds behind.

It's so easy if you just say that you might, just get up and go, leave it all behind.'

END OF LINE


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